I thought I would mention what's happening in the UK with regards to
Internet access, and charging for its use.

Sometime last summer, one ISP in the UK launched a free Internet access
service - that means, no start-up fee and no monthly subscription charges.
It included unlimited email addresses, free web space etc etc. Because of
the speed of take up of this new service, lots more new and existing ISP's
were forced to also offer free access in order to compete. The belief here
in the UK is that by the end of this year, nobody will have to pay for
Internet access. 

AOL are currently sitting at No.2 in the UK in terms of number of
subscribers. In the face of this new competition, they were recently forced
to lower their monthly subscription charge from £17 to £10 a month. Their UK
chief was yesterday interviewed on television and defiantly believes that
they can continue to charge people in the UK monthly subscription fees
despite all the competition offering Internet access for free...time will
tell.

Of course, in the UK, unlike much of America (I believe), local telephone
calls are not free. That said, an off-peak 1hour connection to the net would
cost probably 0.60p. But even the cost of the call is changing. In the last
2weeks alone, two new ISP's have begun to not only offer free Internet
access, but also to offer free off-peak telephone calls as well!

Maybe all this is the norm in the US and the rest of the world, and maybe
the UK are just catching up. It would be interesting to hear your comments.

Regards, 

David
(+44 171 658 5452)


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