'Snooping Bill' sends another company into exile

Ebusiness infrastructure specialist Wellance has joined British ISP, Poptel, in threatening to leave the UK because of the 'Snooping Bill'.

Just hours after Poptel threatened to pull its servers out of the country, Wellance told silicon.com it could withdraw all its commercial services, unless the government redrafts the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill.

Britain was to become a prime location for Wellance's European expansion, but according to UK general manager Mike Daly, that future is now the subject of serious internal discussions.

"This is critical to our business, we would re-site our servers - and in fact our commercial activities - away from the UK," he said.

Daly added that Netherlands-based Wellance - which provides secure online transaction technology to corporates like ING Bank, 3i and Mercuri-Urva - must be seen to act in the best interests of its customers.

"Today our servers are in [London's] Docklands, as it is an excellent location with all the internet resource and expertise available. But, should we be involved in unnecessary overheads and restrictions, we will re-locate, as we have to encourage ebusiness not restrict it," Daly said.

A spokesman for business ISP UUNet added further fuel to the fire, saying it is also considering locating some servers overseas. "It has to be an option," he said. "If you're a global operator you can choose to operate in the environment most favourable to you."

The stance of Poptel and Wellance was further backed up by IT consultant and silicon.com viewer, Gary Miles. "I for one will not use UK web services, nor would I recommend any of my customers host the electronic activities in the UK post-RIP, the risks are too high," he warned. "As an IT consultant I am finding it hard to remain in the UK."

However, Mike Pullen, associate partner with law firm DLA, claimed some companies may still face problems even if they do relocate outside the UK. "If they go to another European jurisdiction, then they'll be making a deliberate move to circumvent the law," he said.