Antony Savvas looks at the free Internet access packages launched,
what's on offer and any hidden problems
There's nothing like a free Internet access announcement to get
the prime minister and the national newspapers excited. Last week
AltaVista, NTL, 4unet, and BT all announced details of new packages
that were billed as stepping stones towards achieving Tony Blair's
target of getting everyone on the Net by 2005.
These offers followed an earlier deal from cable company
Telewest and pioneering packages from companies including
screaming.net and CallNet 0800. The more people connected to the
Net, of course, the bigger the opportunity for companies to flog
their wares. But those same companies should be concerned about the
experiences these Net first-timers might endure when they try to
log-on for the first time.
With the genie out of the bottle, companies announcing unmetered
access deals can expect to be inundated with potential customers,
and that should be a worry. These companies have to work within
certain parameters, and most involve BT.
When screaming.net was launched by the Tempo
electrical chain last year, in partnership with phone company
LocalTel, users suffered a number of technical problems. Part of
the deal was that to get free Internet access between 6pm and
8am, users had to transfer their phone lines to LocalTel. There
was a surge of interest, although Tempo had restricted the
marketing of the scheme to its shops in the south-east.
There wasn't anything Tempo could do to stop users across the
country getting the Internet CD and putting in their claim, despite
the initial target being only 100,000 users in the first stage.
Many more requested their lines to be transferred and BT could
not cope with the technical transfer requests, blaming computer
problems and work volumes.
This resulted in LocalTel complaining to Oftel about BT's
slackness, and Oftel issuing BT a rather limp-wristed warning to
pull its socks up.
It is impossible to gauge the harm done to the image of
e-commerce following this fiasco. And it seems, the lessons have
not been learnt. CallNet 0800 was also inundated, and Telewest,
which might have been better prepared considering it was using its
own network, suffered severe technical and availability problems
with its recently launched service.
In Telewest's case, the problems in accessing the Internet
during certain unmetered periods are said to be continuing, and as
a result the company has capped the number of users who can
sign-up.
Hopefully the companies announcing the latest services will have
learnt from previous experience but it is worrying that delivery
details are scarce. Also, with the exception of 4unet, they have
all said their services will not be ready until some time in the
near future.
Ironically, companies that seem to have learnt something about
the demand for such services have caused another potential
stampede. AltaVista says it will not start its service for another
three months, but no doubt the queues are already forming to be
among the first 500,000 allowed to sign-up.
AltaVista has not revealed which telecoms provider it will use
to provide the service. Money is on fellow US company MCI Worldcom,
but whoever it is will have to deal with BT to get the last mile of
access to users' homes along the local loop, which BT controls.
AltaVista has launched a major service without providing a full
business model for how it is going to deliver the package. As BT
will charge AltaVista's telecoms company for every second
AltaVista's customers are on-line, the service will be loss-leading
and the ISP is gambling on the fact that the rapid take-up of the
Internet will generate enough advertising to pay for it.
As well as business costs, companies involved in unmetered
access - and the ones like Freeserve that are expected to make
announcements soon - have to overcome regulatory hurdles too.
BT announced its SurfTime unmetered package in December 1999,
and enjoyed the resulting publicity. But because it was demanding
that any ISP wanting to offer its packages should leave their own
telecoms company, everyone - including Oftel - was understandably
unhappy about this. SurfTime will now be available in June.
Unmetered access packages
| | Availability |
| Screaming.net | now |
| CallNet
0800 | now |
| Telewest | live but limited new
customers allowed |
| NTL | from
April |
| AltaVista | first 500,000 from
June |
| BT
SurfTime | from
June |
| 4unet | just
launched |
| Freeserve | announcement expected
soon |