Communications - a world where size is everything?

CIX is one of the UK's oldest ISPs and the kind of company that makes some internet enthusiasts go misty-eyed for the ancient world of, say, five years ago. It is still used by many journalists who, like many of its users, have valued the company's online conferencing facilities. On Thursday, it was bought by Telenor subsidiary Norsk Data.

Now take cable operator Eurobell. Telewest has. Eurobell covers one of the few areas until yesterday not served by either NTL (including its operations formerly known as C&WC residential) or Telewest. It held out for an eventual deal worth £280m.

These companies never got that big, and now they've got out. But 'getting niche' may not be much of an option either.

One example is a small company in the UK called Network Systems Limited. It tried to use BT's wholesale ISP product, ISPNet, but faced one hurdle after another. Now it's suing, but the damage has been done. Being down the value chain isn't easy.

One argument has it that there are few sizeable telcos or ISPs likely to survive this shake out. Even former state telecoms operators in smaller economies are vulnerable to acquisition or break-up. And a large, independent ISP such as PSINet faces tough levels of debt and stock market scrutiny, as a halving of its market cap on Thursday showed after a lowered Q4 forecast.

Small service providers and those targeting niches can survive, but it's getting harder.