Internet portal
AltaVista announced
this weekend that it will offer customers in the U.K. unmetered
Internet access with no telephone charges, for a single upfront fee.
Customers will pay just a one-time administration charge of
around £30 ($48), gaining access to the Internet via
an 0800 number.
The only catch, following scrutiny by much of the U.K’s media on
Monday morning, appears to be that only a maximum of half a
million users will be accepted into the scheme during the first
six months of operation. This, says AltaVista, is to prevent
the system collapsing through over-demand.
Andy Mitchell, managing director of AltaVista in the U.K.,
said that high phone charges imposed by BT and other telecoms
operators are ensuring that the U.K. still lags behind
the U.S. in exploiting the Internet.
“By announcing free monthly access and free calls, AltaVista
is hoping to increase the number of people online and the
number of Internet-related jobs, which in turn will boost
the British economy and place us in a competitive position
with the United States,” said Mitchell.
So-called “free Internet access” has been touted by dozens
of ISPs since the spectacular launch of
Freeserve in 1999. Most
of them, including Freeserve, make no provision for the
telephone connection which costs the average consumer
around £126 ($200) per year in local call charges.
Companies that have offered unmetered calls as part of
the deal have incurred technical problems when they have
been unable to cope with demand. Recently, cable company
Telewest was forced
to suspend registrations to its own unmetered Internet
access service.
AltaVista hopes to avoid any problems by carrying out
extensive testing to ensure the system is stable. It says
it will carefully manage the roll-out of its services, making
sure that customer satisfaction remains high.
Experts anticipate that the AltaVista service will save
British Internet users nearly £700 million ($1.12 billion)
a year.
