AT&T puts UK on WorldNet map

Available in the US since February, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia came on stream yesterday and the UK will get access to a limited service until the end of the year with general availability LAN access following in the first calendar quarter of 1997. A dial-up service will follow later in 1997 and AT&T plans to be a top three UK ISP by the end of 1997.

A spokesman said that UK WorldNet packages will be based on the US model where the telecommunications behemoth already claims to be the country's second largest ISP with 400,000 dial-up users.

"It's based on quality criteria," he said. "It's primarily aimed at corporates who need 24-hour, 365-day managed Internet access. They don't want their ISP telling them the service is off between six and nine because the server's down. We'll be able to supply whatever the customer wants in terms of bandwidth."