IMMORTALITY beckons. On Friday the Lions kick off their 10-match three-Test tour against Western Australia in Perth. It doesn’t get better than this for a British and Irish rugby player. A tilt at the world champions in their own backyard. Nirvana.

And, for once, the omens are propitious. In November 1988, England beat the Wallabies at Twickenham. A sizeable contingent of that side was parachuted into the tour party the following summer and the Lions went on to nick the series 2–1. This time round the scenario is spookily similar: a narrow victory for England over Australia last autumn and 18 Englishmen in the 37-man squad. Another blow struck for Northern Hemisphere rugby following on from the humbling of the Springboks in 1997? It would be sweet if it happened.

The major figures are quietly confident. «Australia have woken up to the fact that the Lions are coming,» manager Donal Lenihan, said. «To be fair, the way England have played has whetted their appetite. Usually they complain that the same old shower are coming back down. `We’ll hammer them,’ they say. Now they’re saying, `Maybe this crowd is better than we think’.»

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MEXICO CITY (BUSINESS WIRE) Mexican telecom operator AXTEL, S.A. de CV, has chosen Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)(TSX:NT) to accelerate the convergence of its voice and data networks over an IP (Internet Protocol) network, positioning the service provider to broaden its service offerings, expand its coverage area and reduce operating costs.

«AXTEL plans to migrate all of its telephony traffic to a voice over IP (VoIP) network,» said Alberto de Villasante, vice president, Negotiations, Alliances and Institutional Affairs of AXTEL. «Nortel Networks packet-based convergence solutions will allow us to offer our subscribers IP services that are unique in the market -- services like integrated voice and video communications, secure instant messaging and instant file transfer, while at the same time reducing our capex and network operation expenses.»

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By Alyce Lomax (TMF Lomax)

EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK) is the latest company to bridge the Internet and the telephone. It’s offering voice over Internet protocol (or VoIP) service for free to its customers, as it announced in a press release today. While that’s fine and good, whether its subscribers will find much usefulness in the service is another matter.

Companies like AT&T (NYSE: T) and Vonage, among many others, have been trumpeting VoIP to the consumer market. AT&T’s efforts to ditch wilting long-distance service and position itself to excel in Internet calling have been pronounced; it recently began offering its CallVantage product in Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) retail stores.

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