Cable & Wireless Moves Into US ISP Market

Newsbytes News Network
By Bob Woods

11/9/98 - Four months after acquiring MCI Corp.'s - now MCI WorldCom [NASDAQ:WCOM] - Internet business for $1.75 billion, Cable & Wireless plc's [NYSE:CWZ] Cable & Wireless USA [NYSE:CWP] unit announced its entry into the US consumer Internet service provider (ISP) market, with a $14.95 per month for 150 hour access deal.

C&W's new service, dubbed Cable & Wireless Internet Xperience (CWIX), also offers its online users a discount for C&W long distance service, at a rate of $0.05 per minute on the weekends, all weekend long, officials said.

Besides Internet access, CWIX lets users make their own World Wide Web sites for free, with a "Web Site Workshop" software package. In addition, CWIX provides customers with Microsoft Internet Explorer, including Microsoft Internet Explorer v4.01 and Outlook Express, for Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98 users. Macintosh users are also supported. Besides standard dial-up services, C&W provides toll-free access and single-channel integrated services digital network (ISDN) access for an additional $5.95 per month for each service. ISDN access is available for customers who currently have basic rate interface (BRI) access line and a terminal adapter.

CWIX's "Start" page looks like a full portal site, but C&W spokesperson Robert Hoskins said the site doesn't clobber people over their heads with information like other portal sites. "We want to provide interesting links on the Start page, but not too much information," he said. "This way they'll have a lot more appreciation for the Net."

In providing the CWIX Start site, C&W is not trying to be just a telecommunications provider or a content provider. "We're going to be more of a content aggregator," he said.

Hoskins said C&W's $14.95 per month/150 hour plan is a standard rate, not a three- or six-month "teaser rate" like other companies offer. Each additional hour costs $0.99, he also said.

C&W's service is unique, in that the entire sign-up process can take place online, Hoskins also said. In addition, a person can use a friend's computer to download the sign-up software onto one disk, take it to their own computer, and sign onto CWIX. The diskette also contains auto-configuring software, he said.

Cable & Wireless bought MCI's Internet assets to appease regulators' concerns in regards to MCI's then-impending merger with WorldCom Inc.

In the deal, C&W acquired MCI's US nationwide Internet backbone, 3,300 major dedicated Internet access corporate accounts, dial-up services that provide access for more than access for more than 250,000 consumers and 60,000 business users with over 300 local points of presence (POPs), and Web hosting and managed firewall services.

C&W also promised to fulfill all of MCI's Internet-related contractual agreements, including providing access for Yahoo Online customers who used the service when MCI provided Yahoo with Internet access (Newsbytes, Sep. 14, 1998). Yahoo now carries AT&T WorldNet access with its Yahoo Online service for new sign-ups, Newsbytes notes (Newsbytes, Sep. 23, 1998).

Today's launch of C&W's pricing plan and Web site represents the company's full frontal assault on the US consumer ISP market, Hoskins said. The introduction will be followed by a multi-million dollar advertising campaign, he said.

"It may take us awhile, but we intend to compete with the AOL's and AT&T's of the (Internet world)," Hoskins added.

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