Domain name giant Network Solutions and Arthur Andersen will offer their own personal assessment of the performance of ISPs in Europe.

The rating system will adhere to strict criteria which will allow people to find out which ISPs are better than others.

The details of Swedish ISPs have just been announced; British Net users will have to wait until next week to find out which service providers come up to scratch.

According to the FT ISPs will have to pay $20,000 a year for someone to tell them if they're crap or not.

One ISP, who asked to remain anonymous, said he would willingly pay double that amount for someone to tell him how bad his business was. Another ISP wasn't so sure.

"I'm not sure," he said. "I'll have to think about it."

Oh, and if an ISP pays the $20,000 and fails the assessment, it can opt to be omitted from the list of poor performers.

The Romanian weightlifting team - which avoided a drugs ban at the Olympics by coughing up $50,000 - is believed to support this service.

Someone's definitely involved in a clean and jerk somewhere. ®