NDO Limited was an
Internet Service Provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...
(ISP) in the United Kingdom. Originally established in 1995, originating from
NetDirect which was one of the first ISPs in the UK.
History
Founded as NetDirect Internet Ltd in November 1995 by Andrew "Chris" Anderson from a back bedroom in
New Cross
New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwic ...
, London early expansion saw the business move to
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
, London. In February 1999 74% of NetDirect was purchased by
Distefora Holding A.G and it became one of the First Internet Service Providers to be acquired as UK ISP market consolidation began. At the time of the takeover NetDirect employed about fifty staff.
NetDirect subsequently became the UK division of
ISION AG. When ISION was formed from Distefora's acquired Internet businesses including
IS Internet Services AG in Germany. At the time of floating in March 2000, ISION Internet became the largest e-business group to list on the , with a valuation of $1 billion. Chris continued as managing director until September2000. At its height ISION Internet employ more than 800 people throughout Europe, with over 100 based in the UK offices in
London Docklands.
ISION grew to have over 30,000 businesses and hosting thousands of complex websites in
data centers across Europe. The business was then sold to
energis in December 2000 for $719million however July 2002 saw energis go into Administration.
ISION was then taken over from the energis administration receivers in November 2002 by
Steve Wainwright the former Finance Director of
Ision AG, Sam Hill and Mark Taylor
the company was renamed to NDO to avoid legal complications associated with the Ision and NetDirect brands. NDO then subsequently expanded to offer
ADSL
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...
broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
solutions, with the emphasis on ''customer service'' and not necessarily ''cheap and cheerful''.
In June 2005, NDO was sold again (for the fifth time) to the
Namesco Group but didn't survive until its 10th anniversary as an Internet company.
NDO now remains only as a trading brand of
Namesco, all original servers, hosting platforms and connectivity services have been retired. Some of the original staff remain at Namesco; Mark Taylor (Sysad, 4th round intake), Andrew Snowball (Sysad, 3rd round intake) and Chirag Patel (Tech Support).
Awards
Won the Best business broadband ISP at the Future UK Internet Awards in 2003.
Won the
Which Magazine best Buy for
dialup
Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telep ...
in 2003.
Finalist for Best Consumer ISP and Best Hosting Provider at the
ISPA Awards in 2004.
Finalist for Best Business ISP and Best Hosting Provider at the
ISPA Awards in 2005.
Trivia
''NDO'' stood for NetDirect Online and was version 2 of NetDirect's portal with sales, support and knowledge base pages merging and edited content with selected sites.
Chris Anderson once sealed up a Fire Exit at the Greenwich premises, claiming "security reasons".
External links
NDONAMESCO
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ndo
Former internet service providers of the United Kingdom