Cyrus Afzali

After being forced to shed its consumer ISP offering as part of its recent merger, MCI WorldCom is reportedly preparing to launch a new service. For some time, MCI WorldCom officials have said the company plans to again enter the consumer ISP space, but they have been vague on details as well as when the […]

Upstart online auctioneer Bid.com plans to head overseas in its effort to capture a sizeable share of the Internet auction market. The company also looking to establish an interactive Internet shopping network. Jeff Lymburner, Bid.com’s president, said Thursday the Tampa, Fla.-based company will establish a European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. “That could easily extend to […]

Qwest Communications Inc. Wednesday won a $13 million, multi-year contract to provide backbone capacity to America Online Inc. Qwest will provide AOL with high-speed IP connectivity, private line and collocation services as well as additional bandwidth. AOL will deploy several high-speed connections from Qwest, ranging in speeds from OC-3, or 155 megabits per second, to […]

Internet telephony pioneer Net2Phone is pairing with free e-mail provider CommTouch to offer low-cost PC-to-phone service directly to Commtouch users. The new service allows consumers with e-mail accounts with CommTouch partners to click on a Net2Phone link inside their e-mail user interface and make inexpensive calls thorugh the Internet to any phone in the world. […]

GTE and Cisco Systems Inc. Tuesday announced they will work together to deploy enhanced Internet Protocol (IP) services over GTE’s Global Network Infrastructure (GNI) for enterprise and residential customers. The high-speed, high capacity GTE IP network provides a variety of services including IP fax, Internet call waiting, unified messaging and voice-over IP technologies. GNI’s network […]

Compaq Computer Corp. Tuesday announced plans to spin-off its AltaVista search engine and take it public. Compaq inherited the AltaVista search engine when it acquired Digital Equipment Corp. last year. Almost immediately after the acquisition, speculation began as to what Compaq would do with the search engine. Separately, Microsoft Corp. reached an agreement with Compaq […]

Web America Networks, Gateway Inc.’s former Internet service provider partner, has won a temporary restraining order that stops UUNet from taking over the Gateway.net service. Web America has provided Internet access for Gateway’s service since it launched a little under a year and a half ago. The two companies started sparring last week when Gateway […]

Online auctioneer eBay is being targeted by New York City officials over allegations of fraud in an investigation that could be expanded to include the federal government. According to published reports, the investigation of eBay was prompted by reports that disreputable sports memorabilia dealers have allegedly sold one-of-a-kind items to more than one person. The […]

A group of independent Internet access providers are asking the Federal Communications Commission to postpone a ruling that would give regional telephone companies the right to expand their high-speed access offerings. The Independent Service Providers’ Consortium, Commercial Internet Exchange and six state ISP associations told the FCC Thursday their business could be jeopardized if the […]

Domain registrar Network Solutions this week changed its Whois directory listings to exclude the date domain names were registered. Previously, individuals who went to Network Solutions’ InterNIC registration service and searched on a domain name would see a detailed listing including who the name was registered to and when they registered it. Network Solutions spokesman […]

Enron Communications Inc. is teaming with RealNetworks Inc. to deliver high-quality video broadcasts over Enron’s fiber-optic network. Enron specializes in delivering high-bandwidth content to businesses. The Enron Intelligent Network uses distributed servers and messaging technology to deliver the content over its network. Enron is expected to complete its 15,000-mile fiber-optic network later this year. The […]

Cable Internet provider Road Runner Wednesday announced plans to offer free online gaming to customers of the high-speed Internet service through a partnership with SegaSoft Networks Inc. Road Runner is a joint venture between Time Warner, MediaOne, Microsoft, Compaq and Advance Newhouse. The multi-player gaming service is already available to MediaOne customers in several markets […]