UK internet service provider Easynet Group Plc yesterday said strong dial-up access services growth, spurred by the firm’s ventures into the subscription-free arena, helped it record its second successive profitable six-month return. In the six months to June 30 1999 revenue growth from corporate access and services provision was up 79% at 8.6m pounds ($13.9m), compared to the year-ago period. This gave Easynet a net income for the period of 252,000 pounds ($406,800) on total revenue of 12.8m pounds ($20.7m).
The London Stock Exchange-listed company said it will continue to use its Easynet Telecommunications network, which is used to terminate its business and consumer dialup services, to attract branded companies to act as virtual ISPs on its infrastructure.
Chairman David Rowe said: The growth of free dial-up services in the UK has benefited the Easynet Telecommunications division, providing a rapidly growing revenue stream to the company and an opportunity to attract large partners. The boom in the subscription-free virtual ISP in the first half of this year certainly seems to have made an impact on Easynet’s numbers. Although dialup as a percentage of revenue is down around 1% on the whole of last year, in 1998 dialup revenues grew only 107% compared to 143% from corporate clients, so perhaps the tide is changing.
