Tiny Online
is now offering free unmetered internet access to an unlimited number
of UK subscribers. "All you pay is the cost of a local call when
you're on-line," promises the site. "There's no subscription,
no registration fee, no hidden extras at all". Tiny make their
own PCs which come with net access installed, you can download the software
from the site and the company also distribute CDs throughout its 123
UK showrooms. As is customary with free ISPs calls to service support
are charged at a hefty 50p a minute.
14th March Freeserve,
the company that started the free ISP revolution, today announced Freeserve
Time, in partnership with BT. There are two plans for free internet
access. Under the first package Freeserve members must spend £10 per
month on national or international telephone calls for 24/7 unmetered
internet access. The second package, offers unlimited off-peak and weekend
Internet calls, with a flat rate charge of just £6.99 per month. Users
will also need an "inexpensive" router - telephone adaptor
- which will be available at stores owned by Dixons Group - the parent
company of Freeserve.
13th March Breathe
threw their hat into the "totally free" ISP ring today with
an offer of toll-free internet access for life all for an initial set-up
fee of £50. The package will be available from early April to 50,000
registered Breath Net members. You can enlist as a member at the site
or using CDs available from Toys R Us and Kiss FM radio.
8th March 2000 BT today responded
to recent announcements of "totally free" internet calls by
Telewest, NTL and AltaVista by revealing its own plans to introduce
a "totally free" Internet service from June 1st. There are
three main packages in BT's Surftime:
1) For a £9.26
a month line rental residential customers will be charged 1p a minute
for internet use during the day, 0.6p a minute in the evening and 0.5p
a minute at the weekend.
2) For a £15.25 for line rental residential customers get unmetered
internet use every evening and all weekend. There is also 80 minutes
of free voice calls, but day time charges of a penny a minute for Net
use will apply.
3) For £29.25 (including VAT) a month for residential customers and
£29.74 (excluding VAT) for business customers users will get unmetered
Internet access 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
6th March AltaVista
announced plans today to introduce unlimited dial-up Internet access
- "within three months" - using an 0800 number. There will
be an initial set up fee and a annual renewal charge (£35 and £10).
Initially the service will be available to a total of 90,000 registered
users and is expected to be rolled out to more users later.
7th March 2000 NTL,
the US communications group, is now offering free internet calls, as
well as free access in the UK. The service, which will be available
from 17th April, requires that you sign up to its 3-2-1 telephony service
and 1) use NTL's special adaptor (costs £10 ) with an ordinary BT socket
and 2) make at least £10 of non internet calls per month. You also still
have to pay for line rental from BT.
After being overwhelmed by the unexpectedly large demand for their new
free internet service, cable television and telephone company Telewest
have decided to stop taking on new customers. A spokesman for Telewest
said that customers were staying on the line too long and that their
telephone exchanges were unprepared for the volume of traffic. You can
still enrole now, to use the service when it is upgraded, in what is
anticipated to be three weeks time. 1st March 2000
29th
Feb 2000 BT now offers
its customers unlimited Internet access in the evenings (from 6pm to
midnight) and at weekends (from Friday midnight to Sunday midnight)
for a new monthly subscription fee of £9.99. This compared with a previous
monthly fee of £11.75 and will give BT Internet users up to 78 hours
surfing time every week.
14 Feb 2000 Cable television and telephone company, Telewest,
are stepping the competitive ISP market up a gear today with the launch
of a new service which will offer unlimited access for £10 a month.
The service will be available to the 4.6m homes in the UK that have
access to a Telewest cable with charges of £9.99 for the initial connection
and then £9 a month for line rental. Users must make a minimum of £10
worth of non-internet calls a month. For some of the more heavy internet
users this could mean savings of over a thousand pounds a year. Around
15,000 customers have already registered for SurfUnlimited.
What are
"totally free" Internet Service Providers (ISPs)? They
are ISPs that do not charge for software, connection time, or
calls via your telephone line to the internet at any time of the
day, week or month.
Are they totally free? Not quite. Nothing is. In most cases "totally free"
ISPs will try and recoup their money by stipulating that either
you use the telephone at off-peak hours (and pay at other times);
or that you make
a minumum number of telephone (as opposed to internet) calls each
month (typically £10); or you
pay a set-up fee for the service.
In some
cases, you will find ISPs add an annoying live advertising bar
across the top of your screen that you cannot move until you disconnect
from the ISPs' service.
How can they afford to do it? Free ISPs do it for a variety of reasons. As well as offering
a direct line to potential customers, perhaps for the company's
computers or electrical products, free ISPs raise revenue through
advertising and ecommerce partnerships, on their websites and
in their email newsletters.
Data collected on customers is also increasingly seen as a valuable
commodity, although most ISPs say they will not sell an individual's
personal details to other companies, they may trade other data
on, for example, their customers' surfing habits.
