EasyInfo, WebMail move from IS to UUNET

Reinforcing its statement that the woes of parent company WorldCom are not affecting its business, UUNET SA has announced that Interface Media has transferred its business from Internet Solutions (IS) to UUNET. IS says the move will make no difference to its bottom line.

UUNET SA is hosting Interface Media`s WebMail.co.za and EasyInfo.co.za Web sites in a deal worth over R1 million. UUNET SA describes it as its biggest hosting agreement to date.

Interface Media MD Alan Lipschitz says WebMail`s page impressions have increased from 73-million to 85-million a month since the move from IS to UUNET at the end of April. He attributes the increase to UUNET`s high-speed backbone giving users easier and faster access.

Thierry de Montaudry, technical director at WebMail.co.za, said WebMail`s subscriber base was growing by 17 000 users a month while EasyInfo.co.za was the largest online directory service in South Africa.

"It became a business imperative to ensure that there is as little risk as possible of downtime. To do this we needed to partner with an ISP that was able to accommodate our current needs and future growth such as providing better access to our servers and less downtime - all at a competitive price."

IS says that while it is never happy to lose a customer, Interface Media`s move will not affect its business. The company says it is still the main online business community in SA with over 3 000 customers in total, with 80% of the top 250 listed corporations, including all SA`s major banks and procurement hubs. IS says it.

IS adds that despite increasing competition in the first tier ISP space, it is not prepared to become embroiled in public price wars. However, it will soon issue a statement rejecting a market perception that IS buys bandwidth from UUNET. The company is unclear about the origins of this perception, but denies it categorically.