British Telecommunications Plc and its US partner MCI Communications Corp, through their jointly-owned Concert Communications Services Inc, have united with Japanese telecommunications house Nippon Telecom & Telegraph Corp to launch a service that will enable roving Internet users access from various locations using a single registration. Concert Internet Dial Roaming Service will eradicate the need to access the Web by using different Internet service providers – local or national – for every location the user moves to, and will also enable File Transfer Protocol applications and electronic mail. It will also provide secure access via remote authentication and encryption capabilities. It is based on the MCI-British Telecom managed Internet network along with all three firms’ domestic Internet services, and is available between the US and Japan now, to be extended to the UK and other key markets in the fourth quarter of this year. According to the companies, NTT’s 60 points of presence in Japan along with MCI’s 300 in the US will provide easy access to the service. Pricing is as yet unavailable, but is based on amount of usage.
