InetUK: The UK & Irish Internet Company Directory

InetUK was the online directory of Internet companies in the UK and Ireland between 1992-2002.

The list of UK ISPs was started by Craig Cockburn in 1992 as periodic postings to uk.net; the Usenet FAQ was eventually taken over by Paola Kathuria in 1993.

InetUK was the first directory of Internet companies in the UK - Craig's first list in 1992 included just 12 ISPs. At the last major update in 1999, it included over 1,300 Internet companies in the UK and Ireland.

The list was reproduced in Internet magazines, and statistics showing the growth of the ISP market were published by the FT.

Although InetUK was distributed in various formats (Usenet, mail and ftp) before it was only available in web form in 1998, it was maintained in the spirit of Usenet FAQs: as a volunteer effort, free to get listed and free to use.

ISP surveys

As a result of our work on InetUK, we were invited to give a presentation at Networld+Interop 1996 on UK Internet Service Providers, for which we ran an online survey.

We were later hired to research Central European and UK ISPs by an international telecommunications company wishing to acquire companies. Summary results of the online survey of Central European ISPs are available.