Using the Net to run your life is a breeze in the US, where the time surfers
spend online is not metered. Slowly, other countries are cottoning on to the
fact that cyberlife will be stillborn unless unmetered access reaches them, too.
And Britain, it seems, is fast becoming the world鈥檚 test bed for a whole bunch
of 鈥渇ree鈥� Internet service ideas. But just who will pay for them in the long
term?
It all started in 1998, when Freeserve (www.freeserve.net) was launched as
Britain鈥檚 first free Internet service provider. However, users must still pay
their phone company鈥攗sually British Telecom鈥攆or time spent online.
Some of this money goes to Freeseve, which also charges for technical help,
sells banner ads and hosts e-commerce links. Yet Freeserve still runs at a
loss.
Cable & Wireless (www.cwplc.com) and Eurobell (www.eurobell.com) sell a
拢10 phone line adaptor which tells the BT exchange to redirect the call
through to their own phone networks. They charge reduced line rates, but must
also give a slice to BT, while the customer still pays a rental for their phone
line.
Advertisement
Last week, the British arm of AltaVista, best known for its search engine,
promised Net access free from call charges later this year (hit the 0800 info
link at www.altavista.co.uk). Users will pay around 拢50 to sign up and a
拢20 annual renewal charge. But AltaVista will have to pay BT for its
users鈥� time online.
Cable company NTL is to sell its own adaptor box, which qualifies users for
free Internet calls if they make at least 拢10 worth of non-Internet calls
each month (www.askntl.com). BT, recipient of so much Net-related cash from its
rivals, responded with SurfTime鈥攗nmetered Internet access for about
拢29 per month, including line rental, but with cheaper deals for
off-peak-only use (www.bt.com/ netgeneration/). ISPs are now wondering how much
they will have to pay for the special phone number they鈥檒l need for their
subscribers to use BT鈥檚 scheme.