Cable & Wireless North America, now very much a business ISP having failed to make any impact in the consumer market place, has launched another component of its business ISP strategy with a virtual internet service provider service. It offers businesses the ability to sell ISP services under their own brand but using C&W’s network.
Earlier this month C&W launched three other staples of any business ISP service: DSL, managed firewall and VPN and web hosting, which are all available now, as is the virtual ISP service. The offering enables companies to brand user’s start pages and CD-ROMs, while taking advantage of C&W’s network and technical support and billing services. Such services are aimed mainly at companies who want to use free internet access as a marketing tool or use to as a revenue generator by charging their customers to use it, but have no network of their own. AT&T Corp began offering a similar service in June.
C&W says it has 303 PoPs in the US, covering about 70% of the population. It could not offer any pricing details because it said there are too many variables involved. These include whether the customer will offer its customers the service on an annual or monthly basis; how many hors they will get and the fact that C&W offers a revenue-sharing model for those sites that can generate enough users. C&W sold off its consumer-oriented internet assets in both the US and UK markets to concentrate on the business market.