John Lewell

[London, ENGLAND] Digital TV service ONdigital says it has signed its millionth customer in the U.K. and has over a hundred thousand users of its online services. “Two years from launch we’ve transformed ONdigital from simply the easiest way to receive multi-channel television into the most interactive TV platform, offering a wide variety of services, […]

[London, ENGLAND] The court system in England and Wales is to leap from the 19th to the 21st century in one bound with the creation of virtual courts to enable litigation over the Internet. In a consultation paper issued this week by the Court Service, most of the county courts in the two countries will […]

[London, ENGLAND] Swedish investment company Skandia Media Invest (SMI) announced Tuesday that it plans to put US $8.36 million into Fact Based Communications Ltd. (FBC), a European content provider for TV, Web and wireless applications. The injection of capital will enable FBC to embark on a major business expansion, say the two firms. FBC and […]

[London, ENGLAND] BT announced Tuesday that it will purchase the remaining 45 percent of German telco Viag Interkom held by utility company E.ON for EUR 7.25 billion (US $6.87 billion). The purchase, which is being made because E.ON has exercised a put option that was part of a deal signed last August, will give BT […]

[London, ENGLAND] Global communications company Cable & Wireless announced Friday that it will build the world’s most advanced IP transatlantic cable in conjunction with optical network specialist Alcatel. The new cable, named Apollo, is scheduled to become operational in the summer of 2002. Cable & Wireless is putting US $450 million into the venture, with […]

[London, ENGLAND] Mobile Internet solutions company Trivanti announced Friday the launch of a wireless service that will let mobile users in Europe connect to the Internet three times as quickly as before. Named Trivanti QuickConnect, the new service will be available initially in the U.K., with other countries to follow this year. The company says […]

[London, ENGLAND] Online careers site Monster.com announced Thursday its acquisition of luxjob.lu, the largest recruitment site in the EU’s smallest state, Luxembourg. Founded in 1998, luxjob.lu is said to be “already profitable,” like Monster.com itself, and has many international blue chip companies as clients. Strictly speaking, the deal is between Monster.com’s parent TMP Worldwide and […]

[London, ENGLAND] Israeli communications software and Internet telephony specialist Better On-line Solutions (BOS) opened a new headquarters in the U.K. on Thursday as part of its US $30 million European expansion. The next item on the list for BOS will be to open a new office in Paris, followed by others in Italy and Spain, […]

[London, ENGLAND] Fewer than a third of B2C companies in the U.K. have appointed a “head of e-commerce,” according to a new survey from consultancy Knowledge Accelerators. The researchers report that the only industry sector with a reasonably high density of e-commerce supremos — at 42 percent — is banking and finance. They go on […]

[London, ENGLAND] California-based Web site implementer SiteSmith, Inc. announced Wednesday the second phase of its European expansion, opening full service operations in France, Germany and the Netherlands. SiteSmith, soon to be part of Metromedia Fiber Network if the deal gets regulatory approval, is one of the world’s most prominent site developers. It provides a total […]

[London, ENGLAND] The four Web sites that were axed by pornographer Richard Desmond, the new owner of the Daily and Sunday Express newspapers in the U.K., are to go into liquidation, it was reported Tuesday. Fifty jobs will be lost as a result of the decision to abandon express.co.uk, allaboutparents.com, sportlive.co.uk and www.companyleader.com — none […]

[London, ENGLAND] Global communications company Cable & Wireless announced Tuesday that it has awarded a contract to Juniper Networks to supply M-series Internet backbone routers to its French operation. The new IP-optimized routers from Juniper Networks are intended to increase the capacity, reliability and efficiency of the Cable & Wireless en France core infrastructure. The […]