The first Irish Internet Service Provider (ISP) operated by a "content" company rather than a telecommunications company will go live on November 3rd, offering a virtual e-commerce marketplace as well as traditional ISP services, it was announced yesterday.
A joint venture worth over £4 million, between Buy & Sell, the free paper, and Stentor Communications - buyandsell.net - will offer subscribers the opportunity to place advertisements online and make bids for products using their credit card.
Access to news, sports, traffic, stocks and shares information, as well as the more traditional ISP service - free e-mail, web access and web space - will be provided by link-ups with other companies.
The chief executive of Stentor, Mr Gerard O'Keeffe, said the service would be introduced with more capacity than any other start-up ISP to rule out any problems over slow Internet access for subscribers. The company will initially lease lines from Eircom to provide its service - much like the first free ISP - Ocean.
Last week, Ocean issued legal proceedings against Eircom over what it alleges was its refusal to honour a commitment on providing capacity for the ISP, a contention disputed by Eircom.
The managing director of Buy and Sell, Mr John Whelan, said that a conservative estimate for the uptake of the service would be 50,000 users by the end of the first year.
Buyandsell.net will generate revenue in several ways. It will take a percentage of the cost of a local call while a customer is connected to the Internet.
In an agreement between Ulster Bank and buyandsell.net, a commission charge will be levied on companies selling on the buyandsell.net website. This will be split between the ISP and the bank and is between 2 per cent and 3 per cent. Additional revenue will be generated by charging a "small amount" for trade advertisements to businesses, according to managing director of Mr Whelan. Mr Whelan said buyandsell.net would provide Buy and Sell and Stentor with a new method of direct selling that would cut distribution costs considerably.
Stentor will be offering a new form of call card on the site, which will enable subscribers to log and buy time for phone calls on the net.
Subscribers to the service will benefit from a free share offer when they register for the service. However, details of the offer will not be released for a month or so.
A spokeswoman for buyandsell .net said a managing director would be appointed in the next couple of weeks.
