The chief executive of veteran internet service provider AppliedTheory Communications Inc Richard Mandelbaum confirmed to us that the company is looking for funding for expansion, but also said that it is definitely looking for link-ups with other ISPs, not just domestically but also abroad. There were reports doing the rounds that the Great Neck, New York-based company was for sale, but Mandelbaum once again dismissed that option. Mandelbaum, who was a speaker at the New York Cyberlaw and Business conference in Manhattan last week, said he believed T3 speeds (45Mbps) will be the point at which flat rate pricing becomes untenable for ISPs. AppliedTheory gets 40% of its business from the federal government and academia and the rest from business customers. It offers a combination of flat and ‘burstable’ rates. AppliedTheory was spun out of NyserNet, which was established in 1985 to link New York’s universities over the internet. Two years later it was the first company to connect commercial customers to the internet, including IBM Corp and General Electric Co.
