U-net Founders Launch New Venture

Three of the pioneers of the UK Internet Industry have teamed up again in a new venture to bring new business email hosting services to the market place. Colin Smith, Bill Unsworth, and Keith Pritchard were the brains behind one of the first UK Internet Service Providers U-NET Limited, which started operations in Warrington in 1994. Now with their new venture SMS (Simply Mail Solutions) they are starting a new operation specialising in email services for business and professional users with SME’s as the main target market.

Commented Chairman Bill Unsworth “For the home user you usually get a free mail service with your ISP and for the large corporates with IT departments it is feasible to set up and configure your own mailservers even though they are complex and need continuous maintenance. We are aiming to provide a business standard of service for companies and professional users where it is simply not feasible for them to set up their own mailservers”

Commented Colin Smith, Managing Director “Businesses rely so much on email nowadays – and they want to access it anytime whether in the office, on the move or even on holiday. Most companies simply cannot make the commitment to putting their mailservers into the high quality robust environments they need never mind keeping the servers going. Our servers are in one of the top colocation sites in Manchester with excellent Internet connectivity, redundant power etc giving users piece of mind.”

Commented Keith Pritchard, Technical Director “Also users are looking for much more out of their email nowadays – access from portable devices and out of the office generally but with the ability to access all of their mailboxes (outbox as well as inboxes) and any attachments. Also shared resources such as calendars and contacts lists greatly aid users productivity.”

The new company is based in Warrington but of course aiming for both UK and international custom.

U-NET was one of the very first UK ISP’s and was the first in the UK to be established outside the SE of England. It grew rapidly until sold by the founders in 1998.

Bill Unsworth is well known in the industry and initiated and was a founder member of MANAP the Manchester based Internet Exchange Point where ISP’s exchange traffic which is an important but invisible part of the infrastructure of the UK Internet.