Freeserve, the UK's biggest internet service provider, has teamed up with five websites across Europe to launch a joint advertising network to compete with US giants such as AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft.
Four of the six sites that make up the network are part of the France Telecom-owned Wanadoo group, which bought Freeserve from Dixons for £1.65bn in December 2001.
Freeserve will join its sister Wanadoo sites in France, Spain and Holland as well as German portal Web.de and Italian site Libero to form a network with more than 30 million monthly users.
A 20-strong ad sales team will offer clients pan-European advertising campaigns.
The network has already signed deals with the Inter Continental hotel group, the Spanish tourist board and the British tourist board.
Dave McCall, the Freeserve ad sales director, said the network had been launched because clients were demanding more Europe-wide campaigns.
"This gives them one point of contact to reach more than 30 million internet users throughout Europe," he said.
The sales team will give Freeserve the scale to compete with US giants such as Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN network.
"We are all top five players in our home markets and have an intimate knowledge of our local markets. With the global operators you tend to get a one-size-fits-all solution," said Mr McCall.
Wanadoo has been struggling to find the best way of integrating Freeserve into its continental European operations.
It has toyed with changing the brand name to Wanadoo but is reluctant to make such a drastic move after spending millions promoting Freeserve in the UK.
A final decision on whether to retain the Freeserve name, which is well liked but makes little sense to consumers as its business model has moved away from pay-as-you-go access, is expected before the end of the year.
A number of recent reports have predicted a dramatic upsurge in internet advertising in the coming year. Web users are spending more time on the internet and this is being reflected in higher ad revenues.
A recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and media buyer Zenith Optimedia said the online advertising market was set to return to double-digit growth levels not seen since the internet bubble burst three years ago.
Advertisers are expected to pour money into the medium, which has been boosted by the increase in broadband connections and is set to benefit from major sporting events such as the Olympics and Euro 2004 next summer.
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