April 8, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Europe's battle against spam continued this month with the European Commission warning eight European Union member states that legal action could be taken against them. Belgium, Greece, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg, Germany and Finland have still not implemented the EU's two-year-old Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications, which includes a spam ban.
The first country to heed the warning appeared to be Germany, which, just a few days after the warning, announced it would soon do its part to crack down on spammers by introducing an anti-spam law enforcable with fines and possible jail time.
The EU reiterated its tough stance on spam last month, during an EU telecommunications ministers meeting in Brussels, when the European Union commissioner urged countries to crack down on spammers and give more powers to authorities trying to enforce the law. The commissioner encouraged member states to follow the lead of a Danish court that fined a Danish company $90,000 US for sending 15,000 emails flogging telecom kits.
Just days after the EU's warnings, McAfee Security (mcafee.com) released a study showing that, despite increasing amounts of spam in Europe, companies haven't been protecting their computers against viruses.
In a survey of 500 small to medium-sized businesses in the UK, Italy, Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain, McAfee showed that only about 40 percent of companies in the UK and France have been keeping their anti-virus software up to date. In Germany, where spam laws have yet to be introduced, one in 10 companies reported not using any anti-virus software at all.
Most companies admitted to having suffered attacks, costing them an average of about £3,000 in lost business time. A separate study in the UK, where anti-spam laws are already in effect, revealed similar findings.
That survey, carried out on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry said coping with spam is a growing problem for UK businesses, and that almost 20 percent of companies reported that more than half of all their email was spam. However, only one fifth of the companies surveyed said they were taking steps to filter the junk. The survey also shows that large companies are the ones most likely to install anti-spam tools, compared to smaller firms.
French ISP Wanadoo (wanadoo.fr) continued to make headlines following the acquisition of a minority interest by France Telecom, the struggling carrier confident it could generate new revenue through Wanadoo's broadband sales.
Earlier this week, Wanadoo confirmed that ISP subsidiary Freeserve would be completely re-branded as Wanadoo, and positioned in line with the Wanadoo Group. With the merge, Wanadoo is attempting to set up as a major international brand and leader in the broadband community.
Freeserve has already notified its customers of the changes, promising them "better value, a greater range of products and services and further improvements to service and reliability." Freeserve customers have been told that their existing email addresses and methods of connecting will not be affected by the changes.
Wanadoo originally acquired Freeserve, a leader in the UK Internet market with 2.6 million customers, in 2001. Freeserve, combined with Wanadoo's 9.1 million Internet Acess customers and 2.4 million Broadband subscribers, helped Wanadoo to reach its goal to become Europe's largest ISP.
Analysts report that the merger should help attract customers to Freeserve's pricier broadband packages.
Another recent merger sure to impact the European market was Cogent Communications' (cogentco.com) announcement that it had acquired Carrier1 International S.A.'s dark fiber and other network assets, acquired through a merger with Symposium Omega, Inc. The acquisition adds 14 German markets will be to Cogent's pan-European network, and was one more step in Cogent's efforts to complete the consolidation of its European and North American traffic under one autonomous system number.
More is expected from Cogent this month, when it completes the launch of its European product set.
