Cable & Wireless Plc’s Mercury Communications Ltd has entered the Internet services market with the launch of two Internet access offerings, Mercury Corporate Internet Direct and Mercury Internet Dial and will host Netscape Communications Corp’s European Web site. Mercury, which announced a 300m British pound investment in its DataLink 2000 services in June (CI No 2,933), will invest a further 35m pounds over the next three years in a bid to become the preferred Internet service provider in the business sector by 1998. Corporate Internet Direct offers business access via leased line or national Frame Relay. Mercury Internet dial, aimed at residential and small business users, offers 24-hour support, national access via a Mercury local call number and modem speeds up to 28.8kbps; the services link into Cable & Wireless Internet Exchange, the company’s global Internet backbone with speeds up to 100Mbps. Mercury will bundle Netscape’s Navigator browser, although the service will work with any browser. Netscape’s new European Web site will mirror the US site to reduce transatlantic traffic. Internet dial is 20 pound sign on, and 7.50 pounds per month for Mercury customers, 10 pounds per month for non-Mercury users.
