The UK’s third largest ISP, Internet Network Services, of
Wimbledon, London, acquired the business of Wisper Bandwidth
plc, making it the leading supplier of services to downstream ISPs.
The acquisition of Wisper’s business gives INS direct connectivity into
major European business centres: in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France,
Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. It also increases INS’s number of
points of presence (POPs) by 20 per cent in the UK, while doubling its
network capacity.
“Wisper’s customers in the UK will not see a change in their service, as we plan to keep both
networks running simultaneously,” Neil McGhee, customer director of INS. “However, In Europe we believe the combined networks plus our fully financed expansion plans, will result in
greatly improved reach and service levels. What all our customers will
see is improved customer care, and the expansion of their service
portfolio through combining the expertise of INS and Wisper’s staff.”
Earlier, INS had admitted that finding experienced IT network staff had
been a problem. It had run various recruitment drives without great
success.
“A major gain in the acquisition is
the Wisper staff, with whom we can work to expand the services we
offer,” commented Neil McGhee.
This week INS has also announced the launch of Safenet, a
network-level filtering service. Safenet enables business customers to
shield staff from inappropriate or offensive web sites, using both its own
filters and Cyber Patrol software.
As an international Tier-1 ISP, INS provides permanent, leased line
Internet connectivity to companies, together with managed network
services. Firmly focused on the business market, it claims a
disconnection rate of less than one per cent, and a core network which
has never been offline. Privately held, its investors include Barings
Communications Equity Ltd. (BCEL) and Spectrum Equity Investors.