John Lewell

[London, ENGLAND] BT and IP telephony solutions provider Clarent Corporation said Wednesday that BT will use Clarent’s products when it deploys new IP telephony networks in Central and Eastern Europe. Starting with Hungary and the Czech Republic, BT is getting ready to introduce IP telephony far from its home base in the U.K. “We are […]

[London, ENGLAND] It’s only a narrow lead, but government-funded agency Scottish Enterprise claims 29 percent of businesses in Scotland now “trade online” — compared to a total U.K. figure of 27 percent. Looked at another way, the figures released by Scottish Enterprise on Tuesday show that 79 percent of Scottish businesses have an online presence, […]

[London, ENGLAND] BTopenworld, the international Internet business of BT, announced Tuesday a deal with personal broadcasting solutions provider POPcast Communications Corp., enabling BTopenworld users to author and host their own streaming media. The agreement means that from next week onwards, BT’s Internet customers will be able to use all the facilities offered by the POPcast […]

[London, ENGLAND] Two more Internet services launched in the U.K. on Monday — a wedding planner at hitched.co.uk, and, for the less optimistic, a will writing service named WillWizard at moneyextra.com. Hitched, the wedding planner, says it believes that a wedding should be “the best and brightest day of your life.” To help achieve it, […]

[London, ENGLAND] Backed by venture capitalist Insight Capital Partners, a group of European business people has launched TradingCars.com, a marketplace for traders in new passenger cars. Headquartered in The Netherlands, TradingCars.com is aimed at making it easy for professional traders anywhere in the world to buy and sell new cars, using the speed, cost effectiveness […]

[Markham, CANADA] Nortel Networks has now concluded its acquisition of Alteon WebSystems, a major content networking player. The merger was first announced earlier this year (see: Nortel Acquires Alteon for 7.8 Billion, July 28, 2000 and Nortel Pulls Power Move on Rivals, July 28, 2000). The acquisition was effected by the merger of a wholly […]

[London, ENGLAND] High profile fashion site boo.com, the collapse of which devastated Internet investment for several months earlier this year, is coming back — on Monday October 30, the day before Halloween. Having been acquired in June 2000 by U.S. portal operator fashionmall.com, Inc., the former European fashion site will almost certainly be run along […]

[London, ENGLAND] The Royal Mail’s digital security service ViaCode has this week signed an agreement with Hongkong Post to develop joint electronic security and trust services. The agreement will pave the way for secure electronic transactions between the U.K. and Hong Kong, for government, businesses, and individual citizens. With Hong Kong now part of the […]

[London, ENGLAND] News repurposing operation NewsTakes announced Thursday that former Reuters chief operating officer Rodger Armstrong will head up NewsTakes Europe Ltd from a base in London. Thirty-six-year-old Armstrong has been appointed vice president of business development and general manager of European activities. He will work closely with NewsTakes’ largest investor, mobile communications company Orange, […]

[London, ENGLAND] KPNQwest, one of the largest business ISPs in Europe, announced Thursday a three-year agreement with Norwegian search engine developer Fast Search & Transfer to resell Fast’s intranet search services in 15 European countries. Through its growing network of facilities which it calls “mega-CyberCenters,” KPNQwest will host Fast’s European search engine operations. It will […]

[London, ENGLAND] European broadband provider VersaPoint announced Wednesday its intention to offer digital subscriber line (DSL) services in the U.K. and France, following deals with BT and France Telecom. In the U.K., VersaPoint will use BT’s unbundled local loops for its DSL service, having secured colocation space for its equipment in BT exchanges. It will […]

[London, ENGLAND] Online trading community eBay says it will launch its French site, ebayfrance.com, on Thursday, October 5, after a final phase of testing. It has taken a while for eBay to invade the French market, despite the fact that founder Pierre Omidyar was actually born in France. The new venture follows country-specific sites in […]