ScottishTelecom, the owner of
Demon Internet, will introduce V-Zone
communities to the UK using virtual world technology from
Avaterra.com, it was
announced Thursday.
The move to VR represents another stage in the “freebie wars”
as ScottishTelecom attempts to differentiate its free ISP
service from all its competitors.
“ScottishTelecom sees Avaterra’s V-Zones as the future of the
net in terms of entertainment and e-commerce,” said Martin Higginson,
director of interactive solutions at ScottishTelecom.
Under the terms of this exclusive deal, ScottishTelecom’s ISP
customers will gain acccess to a special Internet community
site where visitors are represented by avatars (graphic
actors). Users will be able to “walk about,” chat, and
play with virtual objects inside the space provided.
One of the planned V-Zone communities will focus on soccer, access to
which will be free to ScottishTelecom’s nationwide ISP customers.
Although with its Demon Internet brand ScottishTelecom remains
the fourth largest web host in the world, during the past six months
it has been sidelined by the runaway success of Freeserve, the free
ISP service from Dixons.
“We are incorporating Avaterra’s avatar technology into our high
quality ISP service to put us once again a generation ahead of our
competitors,” said Higginson.