Based in Leeds, it was started by local businessman and multi-millionaire Peter Wilkinson and Paul Sykes in July 1995.

Managed from a purpose-built NOC in Leeds, Planet's network was first switched on in October 1995 with over 2,000 businesses connected by the end of the following year.

[1] The office in Leeds was shared with hardware specialist and sister company ESS, with the two formally merging on 1 January 1997.

Planet was sold to Energis in August 1998 for £85m [3] at a time when it carried around 40% of all internet traffic in the UK.

Then as Cable & Wireless Worldwide, itself led by Pluthero until 2011[5] then as part of Vodafone and subsequently IBM[6] the company continues to provide similar services to Freeserve's ultimate successor, Orange Broadband.