John Lewell

[London, ENGLAND] IP telephony enabler NetCentrex announced Tuesday the opening of a European data center that will allow customers to offer enhanced voice over IP (VoIP) applications and services. A global company with its headquarters in the U.S., NetCentrex enables VoIP application providers to implement and launch new services without making a huge investment in […]

[London, ENGLAND] U.K. supermarket chain Tesco says it is taking over 1500 online orders per hour at peak periods, yielding turnover of £5 million (US $7.25 million) per week and making it the world’s largest grocery home shopping business “by far.” Helping Tesco cope with the increased business is a new system called TIS 2000, […]

[London, ENGLAND] The future of the new economy depends on the over 50s, according to a report published Monday by U.K. world of work advisory group The Industrial Society. Authored by analyst Charlotte Thorne, the report entitled “Experience Necessary – the business case for wisdom” notes how dotcoms are increasingly turning to experienced business professionals […]

[London, ENGLAND] Global telecom group Cable & Wireless announced Monday that it will spend US $1.4 billion over 10 years with Nortel Networks to transform its switched network to voice over IP (VoIP). The provisional agreement with Nortel Networks is for a ten-year contract, although transforming the network is expected to take just three years. […]

[London, ENGLAND] Just a month after confirming the relaunch of its women’s portal CharlotteStreet, U.K. publisher Associated New Media (ANN) announced Friday it will replace it with a new one named femail.co.uk. ANN, part of the group that owns the Daily Mail and the London Evening Standard, said it wants to tie in the new […]

[London, ENGLAND] Wireless software developer Phone.com has announced a deal with Orange Communications in Switzerland to implement a WAP gateway so that Orange can improve the Internet access it offers to its users. By adding microbrowser technology and the Phone.com UP.Link WAP Gateway, Orange will put customers in touch with a wide selection of Internet […]

[London, ENGLAND] Global communications company WorldCom said Thursday it has petitioned to overturn the European Commission’s June 28 decision blocking its merger with Sprint. WorldCom has lodged a petition with the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, asking the court to annul the EC’s ruling on jurisdictional, substantive and procedural grounds. WorldCom General Counsel […]

[London, ENGLAND] Top U.K. Internet portal Freeserve plc claimed Thursday it has achieved market leadership in unmetered access — a field that is rapidly becoming a battleground littered with defunct services. Freeserve says it has signed up over a quarter of a million active registered accounts for its two unmetered access offerings, the figures being […]

[London, ENGLAND] U.K. communications company Redstone Telecom announced Wednesday its acquisition of DIALnet plc, a business ISP with a strong focus on the educational market in the U.K. To pay for the acquisition, Redstone Telecom will issue over 4.85 million new ordinary shares and £1.5 million (US $2.17 million) in cash from its existing resources. […]

[London, ENGLAND] Online investment service E*TRADE announced Wednesday that E*TRADE Norway is offering facilities for Norwegian customers to trade in U.S. equities on three U.S. markets. With the new service, users can trade not only in Swedish and Norwegian stocks, but can also buy and sell equities on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and […]

[London, ENGLAND] Always at the leading edge, Internet visionary Nicholas Negroponte has given “significant financial backing” to European swap site Webswappers.com, it was revealed Tuesday. Negroponte, founder and a director of the MIT media lab, is joining Webswappers as an independent advisor while also bringing the backing of seed-stage investment fund Protos LLC of which […]

[London, ENGLAND] The rate at which Internet companies burn through their cash before needing more has improved from 13 months to 20 months since last December, says PricewaterhouseCoopers in a report out Tuesday. However, the research conducted in conjunction with Fletcher Advisory shows that there are still plenty of companies at risk of burning up […]