UK Regulator Proposes Price Cuts for BT Wholesale's Unmetered Dial-up Access

Oftel, the telecom regulator in the UK, believes that BT should cut its wholesale charges for unmetered Internet access for consumers by 17% because it is charging operators for certain call routing and call management measures that Oftel believes are no longer technically necessary. When BT first launched its wholesale unmetered Internet access service, it instituted charges for procedures to route Internet calls through to the appropriate service provider and thereby protect its voice network from being overloaded by the dial-up traffic. Oftel...

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THUS plc. Claims BT's DSL Wholesale Price Cuts Will Hurt Margins

THUS plc, a competitive service provider in the UK, claims the new broadband pricing strategy announced recently by BT will cause a "margin squeeze" for competitors. The company points out that BT's price changes relate to "IPStream" connections - the wholesale end-to-end service provided by BT Wholesale to BT's retail operations and other service providers, including THUS. Similar price advantages were not announced for BT Wholesale's "Datastream" service, which allows other service providers to use their own networks, to differentiate and add...

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Level 3 to Exit Genuity's Hosting Business

Citing unfavorable economics, Level 3 Communications announced plans to exit the hosting business it recently acquired as part of its purchase of Genuity. The hosting customers and operations will be served by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), which will assume certain lease obligations for data centers in Chantilly, Virginia, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. As part of the deal, CSC will also use Level 3's network services to serve hosting customers and has agreed to offer employment to about 125 of the hosting unit's employees. Level 3 said...

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Network Associates to Acquire Entercept Security Tech. for $120 Million

Network Associates agreed to acquire Entercept Security Technologies, a start-up provider of intrusion protection technology, for $120 million in cash. Entercept specializes in host-based intrusion protection solutions that proactively detect and stop security attacks. The Entercept products utilize a combination of behavioral rules and signatures to prevent both known and unknown attacks, rather than detecting and reporting an attack after it has occurred. Its products protect servers against attacks launched both externally and internally....

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