The UK's biggest internet service provider Freeserve is set to adopt the name of its French owner Wanadoo, according to press reports.

Wanadoo chief executive Nicolas Dufourcq has drawn up plans to re-name Freeserve in a re-branding exercise that could cost as much as £30m (47.4m euros; $46.8m), the Sunday Telegraph reported.

"It would be ... in keeping with Wanadoo's multi-domestic strategy for us to operate under a single brand," the newspaper quoted Mr Dufourcq as saying.

The name change, which could take effect as early as next year, would force Freeserve's 2.5m British customers to change the suffix of their e-mail addresses from '@freeserve.co.uk' to '@wanadoo.com.'

Pioneer

Freeserve, set up by the High Street electrical goods chain Dixons in 1998, was the first UK firm to offer internet access without subscription charges.

It was partially floated on the stock market the following year, reaching a peak valuation of about £8bn - more than Dixons itself - at the height of the internet boom.

Wanadoo, part-owned by French telephone giant France Telecom, acquired Freeserve for about £1.6bn in December 2000.

Freeserve chief executive John Pluthero last week announced that he was leaving the firm to take over as head of troubled telecoms firm Energis.