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AOL & NTL In Early Partnership Discussions "It is true that we are in the early stage of talks with AOL about some potential joint activity, (but) apart from an outline term sheet (agenda), nothing has been agreed at this stage and we have nothing to announce," an NTL spokesman told the news agency Reuters. Industry sources said an alliance between the two groups could see the UK-based cable operator offer its European broadband distribution network in return for AOL Time Warner's prize content, industry sources said. AOL Time Warner, created from the merger of America Online and Time Warner in the world's second biggest takeover, has been looking to spread its wings in Europe for some time as part of efforts to raise its international revenues. NTL has 8.5 million subscribers across Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany but the group has been plagued by concerns over how it will recoup heavy investment in its infrastructure and a content partner of the quality of AOL Time Warner would be seen as quite a coup, analysts said. However, both sides insisted they were still far from a deal. UK Government Gets An ‘F’ For E-Business They've blasted the PM Tony Blair for failing to make the UK "the best place in the world for e-commerce" - despite his highly publicised promise to do so. They are also urging political parties to spell out exactly what they'll do to boost e-commerce in their manifestos. The call comes following research for OneStopClick.com, which demonstrates that: • 93% blame the government for failing to deliver broadband to the nationNow OneStopClick.com has written to all the major political parties in a bid to make them say how they intend to make Britain a truly digital economy. Paul Denham, managing director of OneStopClick.com said, "The government is failing to do enough to help Britain make the most of the e-business revolution.” "One of the biggest hurdles is to bring broadband access to all. It is also one of the most important steps to developing a profitable e-commerce culture in the UK. The current high cost and the slow speed of the Internet in the UK is stifling online business. Telecoms need to be opened to full competition and more government pressure needs to be applied to bring broadband to all.” "Blair's right when he says we should be the best. We should be leading the rest of the world. The question is how are we going to do it." The study, which was carried out on 122 UK businesses during April, shows that using government money raised from the 3G licence auction to fund e-business education programmes and better regulation of Internet charges are among the things businesses want to see tackled by the government. "The government says e-business is important, but gives a junior minister the responsibility for it. If they are as serious as they say then why isn't e-business a portfolio for a senior minister", Denham added. Totalise Banking Service Put On Hold  Totalise has been developing its financial services division with one of the aims being to create an Internet banking service. The company has successfully sourced a banking partner, with heads of agreement having been reached.However, the board has decided that it is inappropriate to proceed with the investment at the current time given existing conditions for financial services institutions addressing the Internet banking market. As a result Graham Johnson, director responsible for the financial services division, has resigned from the company with immediate effect but will continue to support the department for a short time. Darren Lock has assumed direct responsibility for this division. Totalise will continue to offer and actively market its existing financial services product lines which include a credit card, private medical insurance and foreign currency provision. The increased strategic focus following the sale of its call share revenue announced on 23rd April, has created an opportunity for Totalise to reduce the number of directors on the board to a level more appropriate to the size of its operations. As a result, the company has accepted the resignation of non-executive director David Watt to enable him to concentrate on other business interests. NTL And Telewest Branded As “Not Viable” In yesterday’s Sunday Times, Telewest and its nearest rival NTL could both face financial ruin. The research from the investment bank HSBC, rates both companies as “not viable”. They added, "The combination of high losses, huge debt burdens and unstoppable spending plans spells disaster down the line for equity holders." Before NTL raised $388m (£270m) of fresh funds from GE Capital on Friday, HSBC estimated that NTL was set to exhaust its existing cash by the end of June.Despite these strong revenues, NTL still has a debt burden of £9 billion. HSBC's Jonathan Dann said it is being supported by a loan of £1 billion arranged with Morgan Stanley, and that plans to turn this loan into a high-yielding bond issue have been delayed by a lack of investor appetite.Obviously it appears that there will be some major changes within the cable industry in the not so distant future. Hopefully it will not have an adverse affect on its consumers. At the moment NTL are progressing well with their cable trials in Manchester. No Refunds Due To Ex-Connect25 Customers  Connect25 ceased trading on 18th April leaving many of its customers out of pocket after signing up to the £12.95 per month unmetered service.The liquidators Elwell, Watchorn & Saxton have informed the ISP’s customers that they are classed as unsecured creditors and will not be receiving any refunds from the insolvent company. However there may be a possibility of a buyer for Connect25. The letter being sent out to customers reads: The nominated liquidator intends to enter negotiations to seek to find a buyer for the goodwill of Connect 25 Ltd on the basis that such buyer would provide Internet access services to subscribers at a reduced rate or for free for a limited period of time.There is a creditors meeting planned for May 2nd at the offices of Elwell, Watchorn & Saxton in Sileby, Leicester. Although not legally obliged to, customers who paid by credit card may be able to get a refund from their card company. PLEASE HELP - Tell Net4Nowt about your problems We would therefore be grateful for THREE MINUTES of your time to answer 6 questions in the Net4nowt ISP Problems Survey about problems you may have encountered with your ISP. The survey refers to significant problems. Please note, these are defined as issues that have caused significant levels of inconvenience and possibly monetary loss. The results will be published in approximately three weeks time. Thank you for your participation. Net4nowt ISP Problems Survey Merger Of ONDigital And ITV Is 'Fatally Flawed' However, ZDNet reports that according to one analyst, the structure of the merger is 'fatally flawed'. As well as trialling a free digital TV giveaway in deprived areas, the government is also planning an educational campaign to iron out some of the confusion surrounding digital TV. According to Forrester analyst Tim Grimsditch, while the concept of creating an integrated multi-channel media company is "perfect", the proposed structure is less so. "It is fundamentally flawed and should never be implemented," he said.As the Government plans to turn off the analogue signal between 2006 and 2010, Curry believes that by building a strong enough offering, people will be encouraged to migrate to digital TV. The government will still have its work cut out to persuade people to shift to digital as the Consumer Association research shows that 45 percent of people claim they have enough channels already and don't want anymore... If the government's digital plans are to be realised good quality free to air digital content will be vital. "The content has got to be of sufficiently good value to persuade people to upgrade to a digital set," Curry said. Do you feel it is wrong for the government to turn off analogue altogether in favour of future advancement, or do you feel it is a necessary step forward? 4theNET Set For A May Day Launch Up until recently the new unmetered services were only available to the domestic user, but 4theNET Unlimited Business is aimed at small to medium sized businesses. It also has the added attraction that there is no disconnection time. The access package is only £15 + VAT per month and includes 10 mb of webspace and 15 email addresses. Unmetered access is between 6am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, with call charges outside of these hours charged at the standard local rate. Telephone is charged at 50p per minute or free by email. Kevin Peel, the technical director of 4theNET said, “Nobody seems to have tackled the Internet needs of the small and medium businesses in this country. All of the big ISPs have centred their low cost efforts on the domestic user. We hope to address this so that businesses can use the full power of the Internet without the worry of high telephone bills.” 4theNET are also able to offer an extremely competitive ADSL service for businesses. They also offer a variety of packages for home surfers including a 24/7 Unlimited Option for only £12.99 including VAT and a Daytime Option when surfers can access the Internet between 12 noon and 5pm, 7 days a week for only £4.99 including VAT. ic24 Free 0800 Offer Extended  Running for more than a year, the 0800 offer from ic24 has been extended month after month much to the satisfaction of its customers.The 'After 8' offer has been extended until Sunday 6th May when the company will once again decide on its future. This time extended by only a week compared to the usual fortnight. Completely free 0800 access is available between 8pm and midnight, 7 days a week. All other calls are charged at the local rate. Totalserve Revise Unmetered Packages  A few details have changed including a price rise, but disappointingly the 12 month minimum contract remains.Totalserve have different types of accounts range from £1.99 + VAT per month for the Ultimate Express account which allows users just 10 minutes of unmetered access per hour. It is designed for customers who just want to send and receive email and as such is limited to 200 minutes per month. The top account is for multiple business users. Priced at £29.99 + VAT per month, Ultimate Surf Day provides unmetered Internet access during peak hours from Monday to Friday. All accounts also have a 2-hour cut-off period. The packages are expected to be available from May 10th. Full details of the Totalserve packages can be found over at ISPreview. Freeserve: Resignation Claims Are Nonsense  Rumours were abound yesterday after the resignation announcement of BT chairman Sir Iain Vallance who will be handing over the position to Sir Christopher, chairman of the BBC.According to press sources, two top level executives were to leave the company. The chief executive of Freeserve, John Pluthero was the prime target followed by managing directors Sarah Carpenter and Jon Grimsby. But Freeserve has denied the claims as “nonsense”. PLEASE HELP - Tell Net4Nowt about your problems We would therefore be grateful for THREE MINUTES of your time to answer 6 questions in the Net4nowt ISP Problems Survey about problems you may have encountered with your ISP. The survey refers to significant problems. Please note, these are defined as issues that have caused significant levels of inconvenience and possibly monetary loss. The results will be published in approximately three weeks time. Thank you for your participation. Net4nowt ISP Problems Survey Easynet Exceeds Business Growth Expectations At the AGM in London, the chairman and CEO of Easynet, David Roe, told shareholders, “"The year has started well with a combination of better than expected new business growth in all territories and a high level of recurring revenue from existing business customers.” In the face of many companies who have quit the local loop unbundling process of BT’s local exchanges, Easynet is one of only a small handful remaining. David Roe added, “Progress within DSL has also been encouraging. In the first quarter we have doubled the number of installed lines to 5,000, and we are still on track to enter selective BT exchanges in the UK and deliver end to end Easynet DSL services during the second half of 2001.” Freechariot Emerge Once Again With New Service Ending their Internet services at the end of March, Freechariot has now come up with a range of FRIACO based accounts to satisfy most peoples Internet surfing habits. Due to start at the end of April, they will be offering home users two different types of account: FC Unlimited - 24/7 unmetered access for £14.49 per month.For business users there is a service which provides unmetered access between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. This will be priced at £5.99 (+ VAT) per month with calls at other times charged at the local 0845 rate. Whether they can assure their previous customers that they will not see a repeat performance of last month, we will have to wait and see. At present there is no further information on email, webspace or cut-offs. Freechariot also plan to provide a 512Kbps ADSL service in June for £59.99 per month. Virgin.net Preparing For Unmetered Launch Customers of Virgin using the old C&W network have recently received emails asking them to shift their accounts to the new NTL network. Until now Virgin.net's network has been split between ntl and Cable & Wireless. The move will lump everyone onto one manageable network.Virgin said the move would allow them to put together an unmetered Internet service for its 600,000 active customers. By the end of the year Virgin, which is a joint venture with NTL, also hope to launch a broadband package. BT’s Vallance Hands Over To BBC Chairman Sir Iain said, 'For some time now I have felt it right that I should stand down once we could find an able successor. I am delighted we have now done so and I look forward to maintaining my links with BT alongside both Christopher and Peter Bonfield, CE0, with whom I have hugely enjoyed working for more than five years.' Sir Peter Bonfield said, 'Iain's contribution to BT and the industry has been enormous. I thank him for the excellent support he has given me as CEO and look forward to working with Christopher in the next phase of rapid change in our company.' Speaking of his new job Sir Christopher said, 'BT is an excellent company operating in a highly competitive sector. I look forward to chairing the Board through the next challenging and exciting period. There are immediate issues to address, notably the impact of a very dynamic marketplace on the strategic priorities of the company; managing for cash and realising value for assets in the context of the current levels of debt.” Sir Christopher has been Chairman of the BBC since 1996 and he will remain so until his successor takes up this appointment in May. LineOne In £62 Million Tiscali Buy Out  The acquisition is part of Tiscali’s strategy to achieve a top 3 position in every European country, thereby establishing itself as the leading Internet Communication Company in Europe.Previously jointly owned by British Telecommunications plc and United Business Media plc, LineOne had over 1.85 million registered members at the end of March 2001, of which approximately 430,000 are active dial-up subscribers. With the acquisition of LineOne, Tiscali reaches a total registered customer base of 16 million, of which over 7 million are active customers, and over 9.5 million monthly unique visitors to its websites. Tiscali is also rolling out an extensive investment programme in infrastructure, technology and services in the UK, which, together with other selected acquisitions, will allow the Company to establish itself among the top 3 UK ISPs. KeMe - A New Sponsor for Net4Nowt Formed in 1987, KeConnect are an established major provider of Internet related products and services to the business community and are using the Net4nowt sponsorship package as a method of launching their new 24/7 unmetered Internet service for residential users - www.keme.com . The launching of the KeMe.com service for residential users is a natural progression for KeConnect, drawing upon a wealth of experience and understanding of the Internet user’s requirements. KeConnect are an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and a telephone company licensed by the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) through OFTEL (the Office of Telecommunications). They are therefore well positioned to offer and provide quality support for this new FRIACO based service, along with the necessary in-house Technical Advisers and Customer Care teams. Robert Kemp, Managing Director of KeConnect said “We are delighted to sponsor such a prestigious website as Net4nowt. There has been a need for some time for a business related ISP like KeConnect to enter the residential ISP market. After all, every residential customer is likely to work for company that needs a strong Web presence. We believe providing a service to the end user that will stand up has been a long time coming. It is our intention to provide that service.” Net4nowt co-owner Paul Hillbeck said "We are very pleased to be associated with a well established ISP such as KeMe. The sponsorship deal will help us fulfil our goals which in turn will assist our visitors in finding an Internet service provider suitable for their needs." Commenting on the new sponsorship deal, Peter Harris, co-owner of Net4nowt said "The sponsorship with Keme is excellent news for Net4nowt. In addition to helping with our running costs, we now hope to progress with planned enhancements to the site sooner than would otherwise be the case. We already have some exciting announcements planned for the next few weeks, there may now be a few more!" www.keme.com Electronics Boutique Announce 182% Profits Rise  Electronics Boutique PLC purchased BarrysWorld for £400,000 at the end of February after the ISP voluntarily started winding up the business.Today the chairman of EB, Peter Lewis, proudly declared pre-tax profits of £7.9 million with turnover up 22% to £307.1 million. The preliminary results are for the year ending 31st January 2001. He said that the purchase of BarrysWorld added a new dimension to their media programme and is a further step in their strategy to use their 300 strong retail chain to enhance the company’s online presence. BarrysWorld is currently a free service and is expected to lose the company around £600,000 in its first year of operation. But EB expect to shift to a subscription or 'pay as you play' model in the near future which will serve to eliminate this loss over time. Unmetered Service Finally Goes Live 08002go.com first came on the scene way back last year by announcing a launch in June 2000 which never occurred. The Zone Corporation, the company behind the ISP, claimed that BT promised them an unmetered wholesale charge via their FRIACO (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination) scheme. Shortly before the service was due to go live in June, BT informed Zone that the offer was the ‘hybrid’ version which includes a metered charge. Zone says that this made their 08002go service unviable and wanted compensation for advertising and other related costs. After an initial hearing at the High Courts Of Justice in Manchester at the beginning of March, a further trial was set to decide if indeed BT were indeed liable. Zone are claiming £37 million in compensation. The 24/7 unmetered access from 08002go costs £9.98 per month or a discounted price of £99.96 if paid yearly in advance. Although the ISP already appears to be struggling. Complaints are starting to come in from readers saying they are having difficulties connecting and are experiencing constant engaged tones. Not a good sign for a service that has just started. These sort of problems usually occur when an ISP has been up and running for a while and due to one reason or another, will not upgrade its capacity. If you have recently signed up to 08002go we would like to hear of your experiences using the comments link above. Tiscali In Yet Another ISP Purchase As a result of the transaction, Tiscali said it would become the third largest ISP in Germany with 1.8 million active subscribers. Tiscali said in a statement today that the payment would comprise around 18.7 million euros in cash and 50.9 million euros in new Tiscali shares. The exact amount will be defined on closing of the operation, expected before the end of June, based on the number of active users at that time. It said it was buying SurfEU, which is present in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Finland, from its founders Dov and Anat Bar-Gera, Media Saturn and other shareholders. Tiscali said that after the acquisition Sardinia-based Tiscali will have a base of around 6.6 million active users as of the end of March with over 14 million registered users and monthly Internet traffic of around 3.1 billion minutes. New Unmetered Announcement From Supanet  The flat rate unlimited access package for domestic Internet users offers Supanet customers unlimited access to the Internet for a set monthly fee of £12.99 per month with no additional telephone costs.For those lucky people who pre-registered, they have 2 weeks in which to sign-up for a discounted price of £10.99 for the first 3 months. Although only customers with a BT line can join and are required to stay with the ISP for a minimum of 12 months. Another product available is Supavalue Supanet. Between the hours of 8pm to 6am Monday to Friday and all weekend (Friday 8pm to Monday 6am), calls will cost 1p per minute with all other times charged at 2p per minute. This will cost users £2.99 per month. Again, a 12 month contract applies. Survey Reveals Employers Are Paying The Price For Net Addiction The Web@Work Survey 2001, conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres, the fourth biggest research company in the world was commissioned by Websense to gain a greater understanding of the habits and attitudes toward employee use of the Internet at work. The survey was conducted among 800 employees across the UK, Italy, France and Germany. According to the survey, UK companies are the most aggressive when it comes to reprimanding staff for inappropriate use of the Net. Employers in the UK were five times more likely to take disciplinary action than Italian employers - and two-and-a-half times more likely to take action than their French or German counterparts. The survey also found that while pornography is widely available on the Internet and has been a public and visible concern to employers, employees are now using the Web in much broader, different ways. For example, employees reported using the Internet at work to book a holiday (52%), pursue education (42%), research a hobby (41%), visit a virtual shop (28%) or watch a sports event (27%). Other key findings from the survey include: • 52% of companies across Europe are doing nothing to address the issue of internet misuse. However, the percentages changes depending on the country. For example, 67% of UK employers have Internet access policies in place, while only 33 percent of French companies report the same."The survey shows that the Internet is clearly a valuable business tool for employees, but at the same time it can be a distraction," said Geoff Haggart, VP of Europe for Websense. "It also shows that companies need to strike a balance and be aware that employees do not object to having their Internet access at work managed." C&W Sells Stake In NTL Analysts have said that Exodus Communications Inc, Genuity Inc and PSINet Inc are among U.S. Internet companies that could become takeover targets for Cable & Wireless. The company now has proceeds of £100 million from the sale of its stake in NTL and will have around £6 billion by the autumn after the sale of its Australian business. Exodus, the world's largest manager of company websites, jumped to the top of the list of possible targets after a Sunday newspaper said C&W was casting its eyes over the business. C&W refused to comment. Analysts said Exodus would be a logical target for C&W as its shares are about 90% off their highs, giving the company a market capitalisation of $5.5 billion. But according to a report on the Financial Times' news website FT.com, Exodus has already rejected an approach from the British group, on the basis that its current market value is too low. Following this transaction Cable & Wireless has undertaken not to dispose of any further shares for a period of thirty days. Totalise Announce £1.48 Million Deal The sale took place on Friday 20th April after exchanging contracts earlier in the month. The deal with Brightview Limited will earn the AIM listed ISP a total of £1.48 million. The deal now gives Totalise the opportunity to offer FRIACO (affordable unmetered Internet access) based products to its customers later on in the year. Peter Gregory CEO of Totalise said, "With the future of 0845 Internet access under some debate, this is a great deal for us. Little will change as far as the customer is concerned. However, with this cash in the bank - we are now in an even stronger position." UK Online Households Now Top 9 Million Within the last six months, 1.4 million households went online while more than a quarter of all online households (26.6%) connected in the last year. On average, there were 1.41 active users per household in the month, taking the home Internet population to over the 12 million mark for the first time (12,776,000). Users are also connecting more often with users being connected on average for 10.5 days in March for a total of 24 sessions (2.3 sessions per day), the highest ever recorded. The number of women online also continues to grow. There were just less than 5 million women (4.93 million) using the Internet in March. 3.67 million women (74.4% of women online) visited an e-commerce site in the month, up by over 320,000 from February when 69.7% visited an e-tailing website. EcosseTel Roll Out FRIACO Based Packages EcosseTel, the Scottish based ISP, and telco Ecosse Telecoms have today introduced their unmetered Internet packages across the UK. Two packages are on offer: ‘Vroom2’ – Priced at £79.99 per yearEcosseTel have said that they have concluded a deal with a major carrier to introduce an 'interim indirect access' FRIACO service. Dial up traffic will be routed via indirect access and a non-geographic number to the nearest available FRIACO port, where it will be picked up by EcosseTel and transmitted to their IP backbone. This move is a temporary measure whilst FRIACO ports are being installed in around 700 exchanges across the U.K., and customers will have to reconfigure their dial-up software when a FRIACO port goes live in their area. This service is only available to customers using BT lines to access the net, due to the fact that they have to have 'billing control' to make the system viable. If you have already pre-registered and wish to ensure that you are on-line from today, you need to call customer services on 0870 088 5404 to confirm your BT telephone number. Update: Connect25 Liquidation The company secretary Natalie Rossa blamed an incompatibility between Windows ME and 200 as well as newly installed software which caused connection problems amongst their customers.She went on to say that the final nail in the coffin for Connect25 was when the online payment company WorldPay refused to forward subscriptions. The insolvency firm Elwell, Watchorn and Saxton are expected to be contacting customers soon. BT Favouring Businesses Over Home Users  BT has said that although they will still supply the ADSL service to home users, they will be concentrating on the more profitable business market.Yesterday’s Telegraph quoted the communications manager, Charles Household, as saying, “Small and medium businesses are really our focus now. Clearly we have to be a viable concern. Like all ISPs, we are looking at our business model in the light of the slowdown in e-commerce and advertising revenues, but also about where the biggest demand is as well.” BTopenworld has also just started a major multi-million pound advertising campaign which is aimed exclusively towards smaller businesses. Although the ADSL service from BT has had its complaints. One customer, Adrian Burns, has had enough and in a desperate attempt to get his high speed connection he has put together a “tongue-in-cheek” website called BTopenpants and is described as “The Home of Broadband Hell”. European Workers Prefer Surfing Over Work In The Office  This is according to a new survey commissioned by Websense and conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres. Over half of those polled said they had used the Internet at work to book a holiday. 42% pursued education objectives while online at work, while 41% researched a hobby, 28% had shopped online, and 27% had watched a sports event. Almost three-quarters of workers believe it is OK to use the Internet for personal reasons during breaks at work, but only half thought it acceptable to do so before or after official hours. UK employers seem to be stricter than their European counterparts. Two-thirds have Internet access policies in place and they are five times more likely to take disciplinary action than Italian employers, and over twice as likely to than French or German bosses. Arsenal FC To Provide Unmetered Internet Access  Called Arsenal Anytime, it will be launched on tomorrow (Saturday) and will be using the FRIACO-based Internet Access from Affinity Internet.Arsenal FC will be providing its UK supporters access to the Internet at anytime of day or night at the cost of just £12.99 per month, inclusive of subscription and telephone costs Affinity Internet Holdings' VIP division has supplied Arsenal with its successful Arsenal Connect ISP service since its launch in December 1998. Arsenal Anytime will run alongside the pre-existing service, which charges end-users on a local call rate, metered basis. VIP is also providing an additional Internet access service, JG Time, which provides unmetered Internet access between 12 noon and 5pm, 7 days a week plus preferential metered rates outside these hours. Peter Smith, Sponsorship and Broadband Manager of Arsenal Football Club said, "Many of our fans visit our website at www.arsenal.com to keep up to date with the latest club news and chat, plus take advantage of the other services available. It is an important medium of communication with our fan base, so it seems a natural step to help them access the Internet cost effectively as well. The subscriber also receives an Arsenal email address, a must have status symbol for the discerning Arsenal fan." Peter Collins, managing director of VIP, commented, "AFC Connect proved very popular and now we can offer Arsenal Football Club the latest generation of ISP products. VIP is committed to providing the highest possible calibre of service for Arsenal's fans." Future Of UK ISP Market Predicted In Survey The report, commissioned by managed messaging company Outrade.com, surveyed directors at 45 ISPs drawn from the membership of the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), although ISPA was not involved.The Vnunet article went on to quote Clive Longbottom, service director at Quocirca, as saying, "So many ISPs started up on a whim of fancy, and the business plans were never realistic. They thought they could go back for more and more venture capital funding, but those guys aren't stupid.” The survey comes on the same day that we discovered that Connect25 had gone into liquidation. Source: Vnunet Portsmouth To Benefit From Redstone’s Symmetric DSL This pilot follows BT's agreement to allow Redstone to operate commercial services ahead of the industry scheduled date of 1st July 2001, for local loop unbundling, providing Redstone with a competitive timing advantage. Redstone's pilot customers in Portsmouth will be the first in the UK to benefit from symmetric DSL services, which make high quality broadband access, previously only available through ISDN lines or leased lines, affordable for small and medium businesses. In line with its distant location strategy, Redstone has installed street cabinets adjacent to Portsmouth's four BT local exchanges. The street cabinets house Redstone's SDSL equipment which will allow connections to customers to be made over BT's copper wires which run from these exchanges. Redstone's distant location strategy means that it can roll out DSL services from any of BT's exchanges, avoiding the restrictions faced by many of its competitors who have chosen to internally co-locate. This also provides a more cost-effective roll-out model. Ian Stirrat, Head of Local Loop Unbundling for BT Wholesale said, “BT Wholesale is pleased about the active role it is playing to enable Redstone to roll out its services in Portsmouth. These services are important for the success of businesses and the local economy.” Commenting, Graham Cove, CEO of Redstone , said, “Redstone has created the first non-BT SDSL network within the UK, with equipment not previously deployed in this configuration, or in street cabinets, anywhere else in the world. This is an enormous achievement.” The cost of a street cabinet is £18,000 installed against an up-front refurbishment cost of installing in a BT exchange of £30,000 to £100,000 (even if the space is shared with other operators). Street cabinets can be accessed 24 hours a day at no cost, whereas internal co-location involves a direct cost (varying from £264-£792 depending on timing, notice given, etc) for every visit to the exchange and the ensuing logistical co-ordination with BT. BT Cellnet To Launch GPRS Service The always on capability of GPRS greatly enhances the performance of the mobile Internet and viewing WAP pages. GPRS handsets are always connected to the network, putting an end to dialling in to access e-mails and WAP services. Reading and replying time is free, customers will only be charged for information sent and received. Later in the year, customers will also be able to access traditional webpages via their GPRS devices. Two consumer GPRS tariffs will be available at launch. A basic introductory service costing £3.99 per month will allow users to download data at 2p per kilobyte. The value bundle costing £7.99 per month gives users 1MB of downloads every month, any additional data downloaded is charged at £3.99 per MB, charged pro-rata to the nearest kilobyte. A single WAP page contains approximately 1 kilobyte of data, whilst an e-mail of 100 words contains approximately 2.5 kilobytes. The GPRS monthly subscription does not include voice calls and is charged in addition to regular monthly voice tariffs. Customers connected to the GPRS network will only pay for data downloaded and sent, and not for time spent online, this means that sending a 100-word email via GPRS will be cheaper than sending a 160-character SMS text-message over the GSM network. Customers will also be able to answer voice calls whilst in the middle of emailing or using WAP services without losing the data and can resume their data session on the page they were viewing once the voice call is complete. The Genie portal will be the default WAP homepage for users accessing mobile Internet content and services from their new BT Cellnet GPRS devices. With the improvements in the delivery speed and always on capabilities of the network, Genie content will be further enhanced to allow for even more innovative content and applications, like interactive games and instant messaging. Most recently, Genie has launched the UK's first WAP flight check-in service with British Airways, as well as interactive WAP betting and games with Ladbrokes, E4 and Digital Bridges. The BT Cellnet GPRS service will initially be available with the Motorola Timeport 260 GPRS phone costing £199 (inc VAT). Further handsets and PDAs from other manufacturers are expected to become available shortly afterwards. The Motorola T260 is available from the 18th May from selected branches of The Carphone Warehouse, The Link, BT Cellnet stores, the BT Cellnet online store and Hugh Symons. EXCLUSIVE: Connect25 Gone Into Liquidation The ISP suddenly went dead yesterday leaving customers without any Internet connection.A spokeswoman for WorldPay who dealt with the online credit card payments for the ISP said earlier today, “We are no longer trading with Connect25.” Now it appears why. Leicester Trading Standards said that creditors are to contact the following firm of receivers if they are owed any money. Although we feel its customers will be towards the bottom of the list: Elwell Watchorn & SaxtonThe ISP has increased their prices a number of times since its launch. Originally costing just £25 per year, they ended up charging £12.95 per month when the service finally ended. UK’s First National Hi-Tech Crime Unit Launched The Home Secretary, Jack Straw MP, launched the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) at the Science Museum in London. It coincides with a six-month exhibition on cybercrime being staged at the Museum. Launching the NHTCU, Jack Straw MP said, "The Government is committed to ensuring a safe and secure online environment for Internet users in the UK, by tackling hi-tech crime and ensuring our law enforcers have the tools to deal effectively with on-line crime.” He added, “The significant cash injection of £25 million, which I announced last year, has established the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit. It will improve the technical capability of the police to detect and investigate hi-tech crime, through the deployment of up to 80 law enforcement specialists, nationally and locally.” "New technologies bring enormous benefits to the legitimate user, but also offer opportunities for criminals, from those involved in financial fraud to paedophiles. We are determined that the UK will be the best and safest place in the world to conduct and engage in e-commerce, and that our children receive the full protection they deserve online so they can surf the Net in safety." Deputy Director General of the National Crime Squad, Bob Packham, said: "Looking to the future the equation is simple, money is going electronic and where money goes so will organised crime. Therefore, as we have learnt from our colleagues in the USA, the only way to tackle this type of crime is by using a joined-up approach.” A Detective Chief Superintendent from the National Crime Squad, Len Hynds, has been appointed Head of the Unit and he will work with law enforcement experts selected from the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, HM Customs and Excise and police forces. The Unit will also work in close partnership with the IT industry. BT Announces New Unmetered Wholesale Product For Smaller ISPs BTnet WebPort24 will offer the smaller ISPs a fully managed dial-up unmetered Internet access service that enables service providers to connect their customers directly to the Internet over BT's network infrastructure. The service will be available to order immediately, and delivery will commence on May 14th. WebPort24 will be available nationally, using BT's Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO) network and is based on a straightforward quarterly port-based fee. This means that ISPs will be able to offer their customers unmetered Internet access 24 hours a day. Best prices (per port, per month) are: One year contract - £99In common with BT Ignite's existing WebPort product, WebPort24 features a rapid 10-day lead time (orders over 1,000 ports will be subject to a survey), and is available to ISPs ordering as few as 10 ports. David Hughes, Vice President, BT Ignite Products and Marketing said, "WebPort24 ensures that smaller ISPs are able to provide their end customers with competitive unmetered Internet access services, something that customers are demanding more and more." "ISPs benefit from being able to operate from known cost base, which is a particularly important consideration for smaller companies. Also WebPort24 frees up time for smaller ISPs to develop their own business services rather than running their own networks. Small and medium ISPs make up around 60% of our customer base and this is part of our strategy to help service providers to innovate their services with minimum investment risk." The WebPort24 service is being launched just months after SurfPort24, which offers a similar unmetered Internet access service to ISPs and OLOs, but which requires a commitment to buying a minimum of 1,500 ports. BT Ignite also recently announced reductions in the prices of the SurfPort24 service for all existing and potential customers. At the same time as announcing WebPort24, BT Ignite is also announcing a new pricing package for the existing WebPort service. Netimperitive Sends Out SOS Message Today Netimperative.com launches a campaign to convert a percentage of its current free member base to a paid structure. If this figure is achieved within the next two weeks, the company will be able to continue to offer its daily service. In the current market environment, the company has proved that solid revenues can be achieved for a content site in the UK market, despite the current advertising downturn, but the overhead of providing such depth and breadth of information is high and can be difficult to justify - as everyone knows from having read about the cutbacks happening across the information industry. Chief executive Felicia Jackson said, "It's clear that making content pay is a difficult proposition. We believe that the best way to find out whether or not our audience values our service as much as we think they do is very simple - we decided to ask them." The membership fee is low, at £50 for six months, which entitles members to full access to the archive (over 10,000 articles), a free subscription to the UK TMT Datasheet (a weekly analysis of the performance of the UK's listed internet-related stocks), free attendance at lunchtime events and discounts on all other events. netimperative.com has also been working on developing a range of offline content products, and founder paying members will always receive a reduction on these offerings. Over the next two weeks, the site will only accept pledges of payment, ensuring that no money is taken until the target necessary to guarantee the continuation of the daily service on an ongoing basis is met. The site will be tracking the performance of this campaign. If successful, the service will then collect the membership monies over the following weeks, and netimperative.com will continue to offer the most timely, expert and incisive information on the UK Internet market. Free Digital TV Could Be In The Pipeline For UK The government along with Internet pioneers, retailers, TV and other media companies are thinking that Internet access through the TV is the future. Figures of one in three are being given as a too-low estimate of how many people have switched to the new format. We are sure even this is optimistic. However, the current analogue system of TV broadcasting is due to be turned off completely in five years and the government has foreseen a PR nightmare when millions of people switch on their sets one day to find nothing but static.The Register comments on their website that there's the huge amount of money it can make from the planned auction of the spectra currently used by analogue TV. There is also concern about "the prospect of some people using taxpayer-funded equipment to surf for porn," as The Daily Mail has pointed out. The scheme seems a good idea, and if it takes off, how do you feel about the fact they are able to 'monitor' your system too see how you use it? Big Brother scenario?..... GUS To Sell Breathe - Confirmed Today, a GUS spokeswoman admitted the sale was going ahead. She told The Register: "We are in talks with a number of parties to sell breathe."The staff at breathe were notified of the news just hours before they broke up for the Easter holidays. Trinity Mirror In Staff Cuts The redundancies follow Trinity Mirror's closure of its consumer portals icSport, Sportinglife and icShowbiz. Trinity Mirror announced last month that it would be cutting its investment in the Internet to £90 million. The cutbacks also include the sale if its Internet access ic24. The ongoing extension of the ISPs current 0800 offer will obviously encourage its existing customer base to stay. Without customers an ISP is practically worthless. The director of corporate affairs, Nick Fullagar, was quoted saying that the company is currently “talking to interested parties”, but would not comment further at this time. Worldwide AOL Membership Surpasses 29 Million  America Online, Inc. has today announced that the worldwide membership of its flagship AOL service has surpassed 29 million. The company said that AOL members are averaging almost 70 minutes on the service per day, up from 64 minutes a year ago. America Online credited its hallmark ease of use and convenience, new features in AOL 6.0 and 24x7 free customer support as important drivers of membership growth and customer satisfaction. In addition, the Company pointed to its innovative marketing programs with OEMs and leading retail outlets, including Sears, Target, Office Depot and Circuit City. Barry Schuler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of America Online, Inc., said, "We couldn't be more pleased with the strong membership growth. AOL 6.0's new features, such as the AOL Anywhere site and expanded AOL-PLUS broadband content, together with our robust parental controls and industry-leading privacy and security protections are enabling members to derive even more value from the AOL experience. "And through strategic marketing agreements with a wide range of partners, we're helping to bring more and more people online in the US and around the world." Schuler added, "The membership growth and the rise in daily usage show that AOL is becoming an increasingly central part of our members' lives. As we begin the next Internet revolution, and we see increased broadband adoption during the next few years, we look forward to providing new services and additional benefits to our members." Whilst AOL claims to have 29 million members, there will inevitably be a large proportion of inactive users which will misleadingly inflate the figures. It would also be interesting to find out just how many CD's have been distributed. Net4Nowt Achieves 90% Customer Satisfaction Other key findings included: - Over 90% of users of Net4nowt are male - 96% of users are likely to return to the site - Most users earn between £21,001 and £30,000 - Most visitors have been using the Internet for between 2 to 3 years - 98% of visitors to the site either choose or influence the choice of Internet Service Provider - Less than half (46%) of respondents are satisfied with their ISP with just a further 25% very satisfied We would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey and advise we look forward to improving further on our satisfaction rating with further planned enhancements to the site. RedHotAnt – R.I.P. The ISP pulled the plug on its unmetered service earlier in January. The latest statement on their site says it all: THE LAST MESSAGEAmen. SurfAnytime Acquires Nextcall  SurfAnytime has announced the recent acquisition of the ISP interests of Nextcall.netNextcall was an independent service provider that offered discounted telephone calls before it went into receivership earlier in the year. 300 jobs went at its headquarters in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. Director Derek Lewis said, “As a company the primary goal of SurfAnytime is customer satisfaction. In an age where the Internet plays such an important role in education, business and entertainment, SurfAnytime can offer customers a superior service at affordable realistic prices.” SurfAnytime launched its FRIACO-based packages towards the beginning of April. The packages start from £4.99 for home-time domestic users and £11.99 for business users. A 24/7 unmetered silver package starts at £12.99 per month with a high quality gold package for £15.49 per month. Standard 0845 access is also available. New FRIACO Offering From KeConnect Called KeMe, it is aimed at residential customers and offers 24/7 unmetered access for £14.95 per month. There are no hidden charges, no unwieldy contracts and no need to change telephone provider, plus unlimited e-mail addresses and 50MB of Web space. There is however a 2-hour cut-off period which is now common practice amongst unmetered services. Cloud Nine Introduces Cancellation Charge For Unmetered Customers  Cloud Nine have today announced that they have changed their terms and conditions which will allow its customers to end their ISP contract without having to fulfil the original 12 months.Instead they have introduced a cancellation fee of £25+VAT if a monthly-paid dial-up contract is cancelled within the first 12 months. Managing director, Emeric Miszti, explained the reasons behind the decision, “The reason for the cancellation charge is simple. Cloud Nine have no set-up charge and have no wish to introduce one since this would penalise our loyal customers who stay with us for years at a time. Furthermore, Cloud Nine provide a domain name with most of our packages so do have to bear an upfront cost and also most support provided is up front too. The charge is set at a reasonable rate that reflects these factors and other associated costs with any early termination.” Last week Cloud Nine also introduced monthly limits to their unmetered packages. With Premium accounts being limited to 260 hours per month, Standard accounts are now restricted to 120 hours per month averaging out at just 4 hours per day. Multi-Billion Dollar Net Banking Scam Exposed Some 29 websites used in the scam were shut down but the mastermind was still at large, said Jon Merrett, assistant director of the ICC Commercial Crime Bureau and Cybercrime Units, which polices all financial and intellectual property rights breaches on the Internet. "We believe two people were arrested in Switzerland and two in San Francisco, but we don't think anything came of that as they were not the masterminds," he said today. The person or persons behind the scam was still at large and could be running other online fraud schemes, Merrett warned. The victims had paid tens of thousands of dollars for the issue of fraudulent bank guarantees which were validated on the scam websites. To make them seem legitimate, the websites appeared as though they were run by an international clearing house for financial securities and a financial information agency. One U.S. businessman had lost £49,000 in the scam, but the Commercial Crime Bureau said it was not clear how much had been stolen in total. At least 10 cases had been identified. The sites were hosted by a Internet service provider in the United States. "The problem with the Net is that it is not secure because Internet service providers don't run identity checks on their clients," Merrett said. "It is very easy to set up an email account and web page on an ISP offering free web space and no checks are done on the people setting them up.” If in doubt about the authenticity of a website Merrett recommends doing a 'whois' search of the domain name on any of the large search engines. This will reveal who the site is registered to. Excite Approached By Prospective Buyers "Nothing's for certain, but we have received some approaches from companies who are interested," Evan Rudowski, managing director of the subsidiary of U.S. Internet service provider ExciteAtHome, said recently in an interview. He added that a deal could potentially be done for just Excite UK, which is 42% owned by BT, or the entire European operation -- worth somewhere between £35 to £70 million. Last April, at the height of the dotcom gold rush, Excite Europe had been considering a two billion pound flotation. Rudowski did not name any names, but Italian Internet service provider Tiscali has expressed interest in the UK, while analysts say other potential buyers include France's Wanadoo and Germany's T-Online. An Excite sale would mark another round of consolidation among European Internet firms. On Thursday, BT sold German ISP Planet-Interkom to Tiscali for £48 million. Excite UK, with one million users as of February 2001, is the fifth most used Internet portal in the UK, the company said. BT To Use Phone Boxes To Fill Mobile Phone Gaps The phone box sites will increase coverage and fill in gaps for existing services and for the new generation of mobile phones. Initially, 1,020 locations will be available, increasing to 5,000 during 2001/2. Several mobile companies have already expressed interest in the sites, which are available to all mobile operators at commercial terms. This follows a successful technical trial of five BT phone boxes fitted with low-powered mobile phone micro cells. The transmitters are intended to give mobile customers in urban areas better quality calls and increased reliability by cutting the number of blackspots. BT believes that similar technology could also benefit 3G services when they are launched. The small aerials could also help reduce the number of large masts and towers required for mobile phones and, because they can be incorporated in existing structures, they will not add to the clutter on the street in urban areas. The income earned from mobile companies will help safeguard BT's comprehensive UK-wide network of public payphones. Research Shows Online Banking On The Increase The percentage of current account holders doing at least some of their banking via the Internet has more than doubled in the last year, up from 5% to 11%. It means about 4.3 million of Britain's 38.7 million current account holders - or just under a third of all internet users - now deal with their banking provider this way. However, only a small minority of Internet bankers are happy to restrict themselves to carrying out all their financial transactions online: • 17% of Internet bankers say this is their sole method of dealing with their banking provider;Steve Clode, Nationwide marketing director, said, "More and more people say the Internet is the main way in which they deal with their bank or building society. However, they still feel having a branch nearby is important. Internet banking in Britain appears to be following the US pattern, where people who do most of their banking online still want choice and the reassurance of a high street presence." The number of Nationwide members registered for Internet banking rose from 100,000 to 600,000 in the 12 months up to February 2001. Cloud Nine Offers Free Personal Firewall To HomeSurf Customers Cloud Nine has recognised the security risk posed by more and more of its unmetered users spending increasing amounts of time online and are offering its customers free firewall software.The ISP is the UK distributor for the US software firm Tiny Software and its Winroute and Personal Firewall software titles. Winroute is a software router that runs on most flavours of Windows and has built in Network Address Translation (NAT), state-of-the-art firewall, SMTP/POP3 mail server, DHCP server and proxy server amongst other features. Personal Firewall 2.0 will be offered to its single user HomeSurf and BusinessSurf dial-up customers. Personal Firewall is designed to bring the security features of Winroute to the single PC dial-up user. Personal Software is available FREE to all HomeSurf customers and can be purchased for a special offer price £24.99 (inc. VAT) per seat by our BusinessSurf customers. Tiny Personal Firewall represents smart, easy-to-use personal security technology that fully protects personal computers against hackers. Built on ICSA-certified security technology, it is also an integral part of The Tiny Software Centrally Managed Desktop Security (CMDS) system selected by the US Air Force for its approximately 500,000 desktop computers. Managing Director, Emeric Miszti, said, “In the increasingly dangerous world of Internet access Cloud Nine are committed to improving the security of Internet access whilst connected via Cloud Nine. Unmetered Internet access has increased the window of risk, now with our Personal Firewall add-on you can surf with confidence.” New customers will be given a download option upon signing up for a Cloud Nine package. Existing customers should complete the contact form to ask for a download URL. ic24 Free 0800 Offer Extended The Mirror Group owned ISP ic24, have yet again extended their free 0800 access.Running for more than a year, the 0800 access has been extended month after month much to the satisfaction of its customers. The 'After 8' offer has been extended until Sunday 29th April when the company will again decide what will happen. This extension is slightly longer than the usual two weeks. Maybe they will make an announcement the following day of a new unmetered service? Completely free 0800 access is available between 8pm and midnight, 7 days a week. All other calls are charged at the local rate. U Genie Email Service To Stay Many disappointed readers contacted us when they learned that the free Internet service is to close. Although the service was going to be handed over to its sister company Genie, they were to lose their email addresses. One of our readers told us today, “I got a call from the ISP manager of U Genie, who had just got out of a meeting with the MD of the Internet part of BT on the future of U Genie saying, we are going to keep the email service for current users but still closing other parts of Genie.” It looks like the management have sat up and listened to its customers concerns. Well done! PLEASE HELP - Net4Nowt Survey As part of our policy towards the continual improvement of Net4Nowt, we would like to know more about our users so our content can be best tailored to meet your needs. We would therefore be very grateful if you could spend 3 minutes to answer 12 easy questions in the Net4nowt Survey. Individual responses will not be disclosed although we will issue summary of results here at the start of May. Net4nowt Survey Thank you for your participation and support. BT Prepares Property Sale To Cut Debts The fifty-fifty joint venture between Land Securities Trillium and William Pears Group ("Trillium") will allow BT the flexibility to vacate approximately one million square metres (ten million square feet) of property within the first ten years at no additional cost. The transaction is expected to complete during the summer. BT will lease the exchanges back in a move which the former monopoly says will enable BT to focus its business and reduce its responsibilities as a property owner. The deal, also aimed at helping it reduce its £30 billion of debt by a third in 2001, is expected to be completed in the middle of the year. Freeserve In Pay-Per-View Lennox Trial Freeserve today announced an exclusive pay-to-view trial enabling its 4 million unique users to view webcasts and further exclusive in-depth coverage from the Lennox Lewis training camp in the build up to his World Title fight in South Africa on 22nd April.The pay-to-view experiment is part of a strategic partnership with rights-holder Arthur Shaw plc to deliver online content for consumer purchase. Existing technology from Vodafone will be used in a new and innovative way by Freeserve and Arthur Shaw to facilitate charging the public for the webcasts. The technology will allow Freeserve users, for the first time, to subscribe to watch the build-up to the fight by paying via their Vodafone mobile phones. The subscription charge will be made to their Vodafone bills, avoiding the need to key in their credit card details and submit them over the Internet. Freeserve users who are not Vodafone customers will be able to sign up to view using premium rate telephone lines. Today’s announcement will allow the first opportunity for consumers to view online narrowband content on a pay-to-view basis. The Freeserve trial is to test the consumer reaction to on demand payment mechanisms. John Pluthero, Chief Executive Officer of Freeserve, said, “This trial represents the opening of a potential additional revenue stream via webcast content. This should allow Freeserve in future to enhance its existing offering by providing new discrete packages of premium and exclusive content.” Daily content from the Lennox Lewis training camp will be accessible upon consumers’ entering a unique code into their PCs and will cost £1 per day per device. This code can be obtained by calling a premium rate number, with the call costing no more than £1 (plus VAT). Alternatively, Vodafone users can obtain the code via SMS by entering in their mobile phone number on the Freeserve portal. Coverage from the training camp (http://www.freeserve.com/sport) commences on 12th April and will follow Lewis through his training programme in the build up to the fight against Hasim Rahman on 22nd April in South Africa. Content will include edited daily highlights of each day’s training, including sparring fights, interviews with Lewis and his training team and visits from high profile stars from the world of sport, music and politics, including a scheduled meeting with Nelson Mandela. State Of Broadband In The UK Here is just a snippet: While there is certainly evidence to suggest the demand for broadband services is there -- as there is a three month waiting list for those wanting BT's digital subscriber line (DSL) product -- availability is still limited. The two major cable providers, NTL and Telewest do not have extensive networks across the UK and by all accounts their initial cable internet efforts were rife with technical and customer service problems. In a recent report by the UK government entitled: UK Online: the Broadband Future, they estimate that by 2003 only 50% of the United Kingdom will have coverage of both cable and DSL.For the full article, click here. U Genie Internet Service To Close Down This is the announcement on the site today: Important NoticeOne disappointed customer has already started to stand up for himself to try and keep his email address and urges others to do the same by emailing Marketing@genie.co.uk and voicing their concerns. Moves To Destroy Authority Over Regulators Slammed The European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) said that if national regulatory authorities (NRAs) such as Oftel are permitted to make independent decisions without being answerable to the European Commission, it will harm e-commerce in Europe. ECTA argues that if the European Commission is not allowed to overrule decisions made by regulators, telecoms companies wanting to roll out pan-European services will be forced to negotiate with 15 different authorities.However the regulator Oftel and the Department of Trade and Industry have disagreed with the ECTA and are calling for independence amongst regulatory authorities throughout Europe. Good News For Ex-Cable & Wireless Customers  It appears that ex-Cable & Wireless customers will eventually be able to take advantage of the NTL cable modem service from next month.From mid-May, NTL will be rolling out in Manchester with other areas to follow. Cablenews:UK were contacted by “an official source” from within NTL who informed them of the news. There will be two speeds available; 128Kbps and 512Kbps, costing £14.99 and £24.99 per month respectively. For the full story check out cablenews:uk. HomeChoice Customer Sets Up Petition It appears that many customers are unhappy with the service. HomeChoice offers a 115Kbps connection for £20 a month whilst many other companies offer a much quicker connection at 512Kbps, admittedly for a higher monthly fee. Here are just a few complaints from their customers: “Nothing but broken Promises”Another customer had only managed 3 days continual service since installation 4 months ago. We would be interested to hear anyone’s comments on the service. The petition can be found here. Cloud Nine Service Announcements In addition to our earlier news item on Cloud Nine’s changes to their unmetered accounts, they have notified us of some plans they currently have in the pipeline.After placing an order for BT’s ADSL service, they expect to launch towards the end of summer when they will also release price details. Whilst Cloud Nine expect slow to moderate initial demand, this is an investment for the future. ADSL will form a logical upgrade path for many of their business customers currently on the higher-end Network Connect package. Only the business option will be available as they believe that the 50:1 contention consumer product will not provide the performance required by customers who typically use Cloud Nine as a premium performance provider. On the subject of FRIACO, Cloud Nine are actively examining alternatives from other providers to BT's Surfport24. The ISP believes that a well managed Surftime based service still provides far greater benefits to its customers than any "aggregate" solutions based on FRIACO. Managing director of Cloud Nine, Emeric Miszti, said, “Surftime has | ||
