John Lewell

Internet products developed by UK companies are among the top awards given this year by the British Computer Society. The two Internet-related products chosen for awards were ShopCreator e-commerce software from Shopcreator Developments and N-XEC enabling technology for the Internet, from Insigma Technologies. A third award was given to MathEngine for its 3D development kit. […]

Amid mounting pressure from both Parliament and industry, BT has announced that it has devised a new set of tariffs for ISPs, enabling the companies to offer unlimited dial-up calls to the Internet for a single monthly fee. Initial reactions to the announcement were favourable, although it appears that ISPs will be required to make […]

Arts Minister Alan Howarth announced this week that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will give £2.5 millon ($4 million) to help establish 47 new IT learning centres in the poorer parts of Britain. In setting up the centres the government hopes to ensure that no one is left out of the advances in modern […]

E-commerce specialists at Walsh Simmons have created laterooms.com, a database of late availability hotel rooms which is expected to pose a serious challenge to lastminute.com. The new service at laterooms.com was launched to the UK hotel trade less than a month ago and went online to the public on Monday. It features 50,000 reduced room […]

BT Tuesday launched btspree.com, a comparison shopping service developed in conjunction with Inktomi Corp. Visitors to btspree.com will be able compare products, prices and brands across a whole range of goods from over 70 retailers, including flowers, chocolate, lingerie, clothing, books, games, and CDs. BT says there are already 2 million different items listed. “btspree.com […]

Dublin-based Internet bank first-e was the first financial institution in the UK to raise interest rates on its savings accounts, following Bank of England’s recent increase in the base rate of interest. first-e increased the interest rates on its savings accounts from 6.25 per cent AER to 6.51 per cent AER within an hour of […]

Having already added a music store last week, Amazon.co.uk this week added two new services on Thursday — Auctions and zShops. With the new services, customers will have access to an additional half million items, together with the oppportunity of selling their own goods via either channel to a user base of 13 million shoppers […]

The UK’s largest broadband cable operator, Telewest Communications has dramatically cut the cost of Internet access for small and medium sized businesses. During November it is offering business customers 128kb leased lines at £2,995 ($5,000), a saving of nearly £7,000 ($11,600), plus a year’s free rental. At the same time, Telewest is offering 2mb leased […]

High-tech stock market Nasdaq announced Friday that it will launch in Europe next year, and will base its new exchange in London. The U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown applauded Nasdaq’s choice of location, saying that it was massive vote of confidence for the City and would be good for the European economy as […]

An organisation representing Scotland’s main beer and pub companies launched a “virtual pub” where visitors can chat and take part in competitions. The site, scottishpubs.co.uk went online this week. At the same time, the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Associations of Scotland (BLRAS), the organisation behind scottishpubs.co.uk, unveiled an industry site at www.blras.org. It is designed […]

Nortel Networks announced this week that it will be investing $400 million to triple its global production capacity for optical Internet systems. The investment will create 5000 full-time positions, of which 1800 will be in the U.K. Nortel (NT) plans to expand its existing campuses in Paignton, England, and Monkstown, Northern Ireland, while also building […]

A unique service was launched in the UK this week called FreeCheck, which lets people connect to the Internet but only answers if there is e-mail waiting to be collected. Founder Mike Brown says the service has been established in order to help save people money. Normally, calls to the Internet in the UK cost […]