John Lewell

BBC News announced Wednesday that it will be a strategic content partner in @Home Nederland, providing daily updated world news to the Dutch broadband service. @Home Nederland is a European initiative of Excite@Home, Intel Corp. and two Dutch cable operators. Subscribers to it will get “always on” services at a fixed price per month, with […]

UK Internet betting company sportingbet.com has entered the North American market, offering regular National Football League (NFL) lines. It is the first British company to enter this market. “We see the American market as one which will enjoy the security of betting with a fully regulated British licensed company,” said Mark Blandford, managing director of […]

Cable & Wireless has announced that it has acquired Internet Network Services (INS), the largest independent ISP in the UK. With the purchase comes the entire group of INS companies, including education-specific ISP Edex. “By acquiring INS, Cable & Wireless has taken another important step towards its goal of providing IP services backed up by […]

Telephone watchdog Oftel has announced that several telecoms operators are backing a scheme that will allow public institutions to gain cheaper access to the Internet. Oftel Monday said that the new proposals will mean lower rates not only for schools — which already benefit from lower tariffs — but for public libraries, Colleges of Further […]

UK Internet service provider 4theNet is launching a scheme on July 4 that pays users to surf the Internet. It awards credits for every minute that users spend online — and at the end of three months it writes out the cheques and mails them. The “Paid as you Surf” (PAYS) scheme is expected to […]

ScottishTelecom, the owner of Demon Internet, will introduce V-Zone communities to the UK using virtual world technology from Avaterra.com, it was announced Thursday. The move to VR represents another stage in the “freebie wars” as ScottishTelecom attempts to differentiate its free ISP service from all its competitors. “ScottishTelecom sees Avaterra’s V-Zones as the future of […]

Syntegra, the systems integration business of British Telecom, is to acquire Minnesota-based Control Data Systems for £217 million ($340 million), BT announced Thursday. Control Data Systems is currently owned by investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. Like Syntegra, Control Data Systems is strong in systems integration but is also a leader in e-commerce solutions […]

Destia Communications, Freeserve’s partner for e-commerce telephony services, has acquired Wavetech, a UK-based provider of cellular phone services. “The acquisition of Wavetech enables us to cross sell cellular services to the Destia customer base, and sell Destia fixed-line service to Wavetech’s existing customers,” said Destia’s president and CEO Alan Levy. “Customers of bundled Destia services […]

Optical fibre supplier Corning announced Wednesday that it will be supplying at least 80 per cent of the eight million kilometres of NZ-DSF fibre required by the Interoute optical network in Europe. Corning will supply its LEAF fibre, an advanced type of non-zero dispersion-shifted optical fibre (NZ-DSF) to i-21 Future Communication, a subsidiary of Interoute […]

Austin, Texas-based Simplified, which describes itself as “the world’s first and only e-telco solutions company,” has opened in the UK. Simplified’s new office, its first outside the United States, is located in Berkshire. Other overseas offices are planned for Asia before the end of 1999, says the company. “Our customers kept requesting that Simplified provide […]

British soldiers serving in Kosovo will get free electronic letter delivery from their friends and family, via the Ministry of Defence and Royal Mail. The new service, which uses Royal Mail’s RelayOne system, actually prints each message, puts it in an envelope, and delivers it immediately to the Ministry of Defence for sending to Kosovo […]

Global sports media company SportsLine announced Tuesday that its subsidiary SportsLine Europe has acquired the sports division of Infosis Group for £1.5 million ($2.4 million) in cash. Infosis Sport supplies sports information to media companies in the UK and Europe, including online news and data. One of its customers over the past year has been […]