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Mitsubishi serves up Net access

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Mitsubishi launched an Internet access services package aimed at the SME market last week, based on its existing Infotrade online financial service.

Mitsubishi set up Infotrade in October 1995 to provide financial services such as share prices and trading over a mixed proprietary/Internet network.

As this content developed, the company started to provide access as well, and has now built up a subscriber base of around 50,000 consumers and 3,000 businesses.

It hopes to convert about 20,000 of these consumers, and all of its business customers, into Mitsubishi Electric Internet Services (MEIS) customers.

Mitsubishi aims to cater for first-time users by offering a simply packaged service with comprehensive technical support. The target companies have between one and 250 employees and want dial-up access, either by modem or ISDN - a market Mitsubishi estimates to be worth at least #115 million.

Mitsubishi hopes to alleviate any worries these companies have by offering a 90-day money back guarantee, billing on a monthly basis, and advice on how to get connected and set up a Web page.

As well as unlimited Internet access, the MEIS Starter package offers local rate telephone charges, multiple Email addresses, free Web marketing information and access to a members' Club, and 3Mb of Web space. The Starter package costs #9.75 per month. The Hosting package offers 20Mb of Web space, support for Microsoft Front-page extensions, a domain name with email forwarding, and the ability to create custom CGI scripts. It costs #47 per month.

As a Microsoft Solutions Provider, Mitsubishi also offers a package based on BackOffice Small Business Server (SBS) for #63 per month. The deal serves up to 25 concurrent users and limits the company to 100Mb of traffic per month. For companies serious about an Internet presence, the company also offers to host a dedicated Mitsubishi FT1200 server at its Operations Centre, where it is monitored and maintained. For #695 per month, a company gets a 1Gb per month traffic limit, and MEIS promises to try to fix any outages within four hours.

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