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By Sally Watson, 1 January 2000 00:01

NEWS Prime Minister, Tony Blair, will today welcome an industry-lead initiative to harmonise Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on the Internet. The Greenwich Electronic Time (GeT) project aims to provide Web retailers with time-tools to check computer clocks are accurate and time-stamping of transactions is correct. GeT is lead by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), an organisation of over 4,000 online retailers in Europe, and is backed by BT, UUNet, NetBenefit, DHL, Forrester Research and Timex. According to James Roper, CEO of the IMRG, the lack of a single Internet time clock has had implications on customer service. With the establishment of GeT, he claimed, customers across the world will be able to identify 'time windows' for accepting responses, deliveries and service calls. In a statement, Tony Blair said: "The GeT Web site will turn GMT into a user friendly ecommerce tool. Because of the Greenwich connection, it will be clearly branded as a UK service to global business, underlining the leading role UK companies are playing in the online marketplace." E-minister, Patricia Hewitt, added: "A market framework for ecommerce must be based on commonly understood and accepted standards. The programmes under the GeT initiative will facilitate time-tools for all sizes of business and in doing so, promote global electronic communication and trade." An Internet time standard backed by the London Internet Exchange (see 'LINX to reset UK Internet sites to GMT' http://www.silicon.com/a34850 ) also goes live today. GeT's time-tools will be available free of charge from http://www.get-time.org .