C&W to focus on B2B strategies

NEWS Cable & Wireless (C&W) today confirmed its move away from the consumer market, and underlined its focus on business communications based on data and IP. At C&W Conference 2000, an event aimed at the communications company's users, Rick Hudson, director of IP strategy and marketing at C&W, said: "We've changed our network, our products and our strategy." He added the company will use the cash raised by divesting itself of One2One and its residential cable business, to build an international IP network. "If you connect in Munich your traffic will be carried all the way to Washington on a C&W network and we will guarantee you service response times and security," said Hudson. The company intends to focus on business-to-business transactions - offering services such as the ability to monitor Web site performance from a user's perspective. According to Duncan Black, director of corporate networking strategy at C&W: "If your business-to-consumer site goes down it may affect your share price but if you're trading electronically with your business partners and that goes down for any length of time, you're out of business." For a Web cast of C&W Conference 2000, go to http://www.cw-events.co.uk