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Unmetered ISP Company Junk Mail Whilst we know absolutely nothing about the company Triple ZZZ Internet, it is a very unusual way of getting customers. On top of that the fax number described as ‘normal BT rate’ is actually charged as a national rate call. Here is the email: WARNING DO NOT use the Internet todayThe emails were sent out using VirginNet which is a free ISP itself. There is also no mention of a website. Take our advice and report it as junk email with SpamCop. Research Shows WAP Is A Flop In the EGG report - Embracing Technology, commissioned by Mori for Internet bank and financial services company Egg, it showed that the public were wholeheartedly embracing many aspects of new technology. It demonstrated that 14 million people dependant on their mobile phones and 15 million are accessing the Internet on their home PCs with 4.5 million using the Internet for banking online. Over two thirds of current users feel that mobiles, digital TV and PCs have become part of their everyday lives and by mid-2001 the report indicates that half the UK population will be online. However, the report also shows a nation not yet realising the full potential of new technologies. Although 18 million people use a PC or laptop for personal use, the majority (61%) use it mainly for traditional word processing. While 29 million adults still do not use a PC, 9 million claim they never will. Commenting on the report, Mike Harris, Chief Executive of Egg said, "It is clear to us that while many people have embraced new technology, it is still not being used to its full potential.” Stewart Lewis, Director of MORI commented, " Most people aren't interested in technology for technology's sake, but our research confirms that people are very interested in technologies that make life's inescapable chores easier, help them increase their leisure time and get the most out of it." Atlantic Fail To Sway Investors Despite Broadband Launch News of a four-fold increase in first-half losses sent its stock diving 11% to less than a tenth of its peak value, despite Atlantic saying its expansion in Germany and the UK was proceeding faster than expected. Chairman Graham Duncan said Atlantic would complete its German network six months ahead of plan, and was switching on its UK fixed-wireless network today, a month earlier than expected. The moves will boost sales and profit margins. It has about £200 million in the bank and the ability to tap £100 million in financing from equipment suppliers including Marconi, which owns a stake in the company. But investors remained wary about whether the company would need further money, and its shares slumped 12p to 98.25p, a heavy fall even by the standards of a terrible day for the sector. Nursing losses of 93% from its peak in March, Atlantic is the worst performing UK telecoms stock this year. The activation of its UK network today will improve margins in the second half of the year as it migrates its traffic from BT. Duncan said the move, which should be mostly complete within three months, would lift gross margins on UK calls by 5-10%. Source: Reuters AOL’s Instant Messenger Hacked Hackers exploiting a loophole in America Online's sign-up process have begun taking their pick of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) accounts, hijacking them virtually at will.Because AOL uses the same ‘buddy’ name for its Internet service as it does for the AIM system, the hacker is able to use it to his advantage and literally take over the AOL user's identity. LineOne Up For Sale – Confirmed They are now looking for a new owner for LineOne which launched way back in 1997 and now has 1.4 million registered customers. BTopenworld and United News & Media are proud of their joint venture's achievements to date, however both owners are refocusing their businesses, and LineOne no longer fits with either company's plans. They believe that LineOne's continued growth and ambitious development intentions would be better served under a new owner. New Unmetered ISP Emerges Due to go live early next year on January 5th, they propose to offer 24/7 unmetered Internet access for a one-off fee of just £25. How they can support such an offer, we haven’t a clue as there are no further details on their site. No mention of an advertising bar like X-Stream, not that anyone clicks them anyway. They are taking registrations now saying that no money will be debited from credit cards before 15th December, but if the service is not due to go live until three weeks later, you will be taking a risk. Another company started like this, Connect25, but they now appear to be providing what they offered despite the price increase to £49. They have also started to offer SurfTime packages. Hopefully we will have further details from the company soon. But until they actually launch and provide the product they advertise, we remain suspicious. Oftel Director Interviewed By ZDNet He talks about Oftel and their discussions which made the FRIACO deal possible and how the UK finally got unmetered Internet access. It makes interesting reading and is in three parts. It allows Oftel to state their side of the story, whether you agree with what he had to say about broadband access, SurfTime and unmetered access in general is another story. Judge for yourself. The interview starts here. Internet Boom - Half Of Britain Online Within 6 Months Chief Executive of Egg Mike Harris said: "We are on the verge of a fundamental shift in attitude to technology and the way that it affects life in the UK. By mid-2001 more than 23m people in the UK will be online. Nearly one in three say they would vote via the internet in the next general election.It has been discovered in the report that in the next four to five years about 12m (30%) say they would feel comfortable banking on the internet, and a similar number can envisage themselves buying a mortgage or insurance online. People's dependence on new technology products is also growing. The report says 14m people believe they cannot live without their mobile phone, 28% feel they are dependent on new technology for keeping in touch with people and gathering information.Despite this, there are still 29m adults who do not use a PC and 9m still say they never will. Nearly 18m people have a PC or laptop for personal use, but a staggering 61% of them use their equipment for word processing only. It is said that, on average, internet users spend nearly four hours a week accessing the internet at home. The report surveyed over 2,000 people around the country, and will be updated every year to keep track of the changing trends. Video On Demand Services Over Telephone Lines It has been confirmed by a spokesperson that BSkyB is currently discussing plans with BT and other potential ADSL suppliers. As well as high speed internet access, the discussion will also cover the issues of providing the technology to offer films and programmes on demand. The ADSL offering is complementary to BSkyB's core satellite business and will use a different set-top box, he said. If all goes well, 'tele-TV' services could be rolled out nationwide early next year.The fight for access to BT's network and exchanges in order to offer ADSL by competitors continues, and there are serious question marks about widespread availability of even basic services as yet. While digital terrestrial television is still in its infancy, this could also pose as another barrier to take-up - yet it remains a more appealing way to deliver a mass service because it is more straightforward. Broadband Offered For Christmas From World Online Existing users of the World Online internet service will receive the offer first, with non-subscribers expected to wait until the local loop unbundling allows World Online to extend the reach of its network.World Online's discontinuation of its unmetered service last month may have left some of its users feeling slighted - but this announcement may be welcome news for current users who may see this as a way of making amends. The End Is Nigh For Oftel Oftel is the watchdog for the telecoms market, but with the market changes currently in progress, it will soon need to encompass Internet provision as the two are becoming even more closely linked. Speaking exclusively and candidly to ZDNet News David Edmonds confesses he is leading the vanguard for the abolition of the watchdog in its current form and claims to be extremely excited at the idea of its replacement -- coined OfCom.With all the problems in the unmetered field recently, this could only be seen as positive news. It has been a long time coming, but it finally looks like the consumer will be protected. Next year we will see even more unmetered ISPs springing up with lower pricing due to the new FRIACO product, along with more broadband providers with ADSL slowly working its way around the country. Net4Nowt, CUT and ISPreview have always stated that there needs to be a watchdog to protect the interests of the ISP consumer. Lets hope the new OfCom is up to the job. BT Puzzled As Oftel Investigates New Access Pricing BT last month announced radical changes to its prices, creating exciting new options that include, for the first time, the option of combining unmetered off-peak Internet calls and unmetered local off-peak voice calls. The changes come into effect this Friday. Sir Peter Bonfield, BT chief executive, said: "These packages represent excellent news for consumers. BT is offering even better value for money in the area of Internet access. And they told us they wanted unlimited phone calls. For the first time we are introducing unlimited phone calls.” He said: "We strongly resist the suggestion that we are acting anti-competitively: all we're trying to do is to give our customers excellent value for money. We will obviously cooperate with the Competition Act inquiry and fully expect to be given the all-clear." Oftel has said it will investigate the pricing of BT Surf Together and BT Talk & Surf Together. BT announced its new packages on October 19, under the banner of Choices from BT Together. Oftel has said it welcomes lower prices for consumers, however consumers’ interests are best served by effective competition. Oftel must ensure that these proposals from BT do not undermine effective competition. LineOne To Be Auctioned Off Company insiders say the two groups will this week appoint an investment bank to auction the business. The successful bank will draw up a sales memorandum and send it to potential buyers. The disposal comes as Freeserve, Britain's leading ISP, is in advanced takeover talks with Wanadoo, France's largest ISP. Wanadoo is said to be close to agreeing terms to buy Freeserve in a deal that will create Europe's largest ISP.Earlier in the week LineOne said that they are looking into launching a new unmetered product early next year, which will probably use the FRIACO tariff. Oftel - Unmetered Plan Explained To cut the cost of using the web, the telecoms watchdog set out the legal framework to bring into force and David Edmonds, director-general, said: "The proposals will encourage greater use of the internet by allowing consumers to surf the internet without clocking up large telephone bills." The government has made widening access to the internet a priority, and this essential step of new rules means that the UK would be inline with the US, where consumers pay a set fee for unlimited use. The plans mean the internet could be utilized more frequently, leading to much higher volumes of usage by both households and businesses alike. BT had been criticised for charging for wholesale access on a per-minute basis. Internet service providers said it was difficult to judge the cost of providing a flat-rate retail package. The draft direction provides the legal details of how the new pricing regime would work. Its announcement, less than a fortnight after Oftel launched the consultation, underlines the regulator's determination to force the process through. BT expressed surprise at how quickly Oftel was proceeding. "It is extremely unusual for a draft direction to be published so soon after the launch of a consultation. "We will continue to work on our response to Oftel's original proposals and deliver it by the deadline of December 8," it said. It is also reported that Mr Edmonds said the draft direction also dealt with how to ensure that BT's network could cope with increased amounts of internet traffic. A panel of experts had said the demand encouraged by unmetered access could push BT's network to capacity by 2001. Source: Financial Times Safeguard Your Rights - Keep Essential Copies A spokesperson for a professional body for people involved in trading standards legislation and enforcement - Institute of Trading Standards - advised customers to get a physical as well as email address for an ISP, to know where they are. Netimperative.com decided to seek advice after receiving many complaints about the ISP IGClick who have seemingly failed to deliver a sustainable service for their customers. Consumers can also choose an ISP that signs up to a voluntary code of practice like the one implemented by the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), which includes a requirement that members “shall use their reasonable endeavours to ensure Services (excluding Third Party Content) and Promotional Material are not of a kind that are likely to mislead by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise”. The report by netimperative advised that customers who feel that they have been misled about an ISP’s terms and conditions can seek advice from regulatory bodies such as the Trading Standards Office run by their local authority, or directly from OFT. PC's Should Be Banned From The Home! The research also found that PCs where the cause of many problems within the home, leading to arguments between family members as well as family isolation. An amazing six out of ten households in Britain now have PCs, and a quarter of these have more than one machine. 3Com reckons the best way round the problem is for people to have multiple PCs in the home and then network them together using a new Home Networking Kit, which it intends to launch soon. The other remedy, of course, is to ditch all home PCs - go on, just throw them out in the street and get rid of them. Then there won't be any more talk of isolation and arguments, and families can re-acquaint themselves with one another. Anyone for a family game of monopoly? .............. Source: The Register Smartalk - 7,000 Snared In Total According to the Official Receiver, the business venture would have been "impossible" to carry out, and, sadly, more than 7,000 people failed to receive computers they thought were getting for a song. The Company has been wound up following a petition by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. The Official Receiver was appointed as the liquidator although it's too early to say how much cash creditors can expect to receive. A spokeswoman for the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) told The Register that the Official Receiver was still trying to realise the company's assets. According to the DTI: "The principal grounds for the petition was that its business was unsound in that in a short space of time the company had attracted thousands of customers to pay in advance £100 for a PC together with a promise to complete a monthly questionnaire. "The PCs cost the company £535 (including VAT). The company purported to be viable by claiming it could exploit the information on the questionnaire and that it could sell advertising links on its Web site. However, it had received no income from those sources and had no realistic prospect of receiving any significant amounts in future. "It would be absolutely impossible for the company to fund the purchase of PCs to the majority of the customers who had paid." "The company was also grossly under capitalised and had no access to any sort of funding, being totally reliant on income from new customers. Accordingly the company was insolvent and unable to pay its debts." A similar operation that was run by the same people - 'info4pc' - was also petitioned on the 10th November by the DTI for the High Court to wind up - that case will be heard on 13 December. It has been suggested that anyone who feels they are owed any monies should contact the Official Receiver. Source:The Register LLU Terms & Conditions Published By Oftel Oftel has put forward these proposals because BT and the operators were unable to reach an agreement on what the terms and conditions should be. Commenting on the draft terms and conditions, David Edmonds Director General of Telecommunications said today, "Oftel has found in favour of the operators’ complaints that the contract proposed by BT was not reasonable in a number of important areas. The terms and conditions proposed by Oftel will ensure that operators receive the necessary support services from BT, and that operators can challenge BT using independent experts.” The key proposals are: • Where BT claims there is insufficient space in an exchange, operators will be able to commission an independent survey of an exchange. If the survey finds there is enough room, then BT will have to pay compensation to the operators;David Edmonds added that if BT does not provide operators with the necessary services to the same timescale and quality that it does to its own business, then it will be in breach of its contract. "These proposals will result in arrangements that are fair to BT and Operators consistent with the overall aim of promoting the establishment of an advanced telecommunications market though local loop unbundling." David Edmonds said that the UK was well on the way to finalising all parts of the framework for local loop unbundling in the UK. "Oftel has published an indicative price for unbundled loops, with the final price to be published shortly. We are close to finalising the allocation process for exchanges where the demand for space exceeds supply, and we have now published new draft terms and conditions for the contract between operators and BT.” "BT has begun work to prepare the first exchanges for co-location and has agreed to have unbundled local loops available in 600 exchanges by end of June 2001.” Following a 28-day consultation on the proposals, Oftel will make a formal Determination of the terms and conditions. BT will then have to revise the contract to include the final terms and conditions. IG Click - Improving Service By Removing 'Abusers'? Netimperative have reported that a company spokesperson, who declined to be named remarked: “We had a problem with our direct debit system, but all the problems should have been sorted out today, except for one or two - every business has its problems, and yes we have had problems getting access at peak times.” he said. As reported earlier, it is rumoured that some users of the service have been kicked off without refunds because they used the flat rate service constantly. Netimperative has received a number written complaints about IGClick from concerned users who state that sums up to £80 had been transferred from their bank accounts without notice or explanation. A number of home users also expressed dissatisfaction with the connection available, and the feedback and support provided. The spokesperson confirmed to netimperative that IGClick is taking steps to deal with the problems: “We’re improving our service by removing the people who shouldn’t be there,” he said. IGClick claims that a minority of people are abusing their service by signing up for residential services while effectively running a business, or by setting up a flat rate account and maintaining a connection just because they can. Unfortunately, cases like this are not rare; witness the ongoing Freeserve saga. When companies market access packages and tariffs under the banner ‘unlimited surfing time’ etc, they really shouldn’t be surprised if a minority of users take them at their word. IGClick confirmed that persistent heavy users are offered a business package, and if they decline, can be kicked off the system. “In some cases people sign up as residential customers, but we find ourselves invoicing them as businesses. You can draw your own conclusions,” said the spokesperson. “There’s also a hard core of maybe 20 to 30 people who stay online for up to 72 hours at a time. That’s not being fair and reasonable to our other customers,” he added. The firm declined to give any figures for users who have migrated from residential to business accounts, or discuss individual cases. “We’re quite happy with the way we deal with people who abuse our system,” the firm’s spokesperson said. As Netimperative mentioned in the report, the need for an independent standards body for ISPs is becoming more prominent than ever. The only support for consumers at the moment are discussion forums similar to Net4Nowt's and NSIratings, a service launched in September by domain name registrar Network Solutions. As the remark 'some users are taking unmetered to mean unmetered' shows that unmetered ISP's need to seriously consider changing the terminology to avoid confusion. It is totally wrong for IGClick and other ISP's to suggest that consumers are actually 'abusing' and 'unmetered' service when the meaning is not made clear at the outset..... Latest Announcement On BTOpenworld Delays Now they have added an announcement on their BTopenworld site explaining the reasons behind the delays: Demand for BTopenworld broadband has been tremendous and we're connecting thousands of customers every month. However, the high demand coupled with teething problems in increasing the supply of ADSL lines has meant that ourBT have recently appointed American ADSL consultants to assist them tackle problems and help speed up the installation process. Freeserve In Digital Photography Partnership With Kodak * online picture processing, with first class postal delivery of prints, photo gift products * online photo storage and share facilities for images created digitally or via digital scanning of 35mm and APS films * opportunities to build community groups for sharing photographic memories, through the Freeserve portals: Smartgroups.com and Babyworld.com * revenue sharing for all online orders of photo products * Kodak exclusivity over all photographic services on Freeserve sites * promotional support and distribution of Freeserve access CDs with digital photo products sold through Dixons Group stores Print@Kodak, available through the main Freeserve portal, offers a convenient end-to-end solution for digital picture processing. Images can be uploaded from a PC to the co-branded website, where Freeserve members can select from a choice of high quality prints and photo gift products, make online payments using a credit card and arrange for their products to be delivered by first class post to their chosen address. Using Kodak's PhotoNet Online service, Freeserve members can store and share their pictures online. Images created from either 35mm or APS films are digitally scanned by Kodak and uploaded to the Kodak PhotoNet Online service hosted by Freeserve. A unique roll identification number and personal password allows members to access their pictures at any time and to share photos worldwide via e-mail. Under the agreement, users can submit 35mm and APS films to Dixons Group stores and receive a URL when their film returns containing uploaded scans of their images. Storage of these films is free for one year for Freeserve members, subject to minimum levels of use. Freeserve Wanadoo Business With The French Freeserve, which is 80% owned by high-tech retailer Dixons, were in talks with more than one party and one of them was French rival Wanadoo, a unit of France Telecom. "The board has entered into discussions which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company in shares. On the basis of yesterday's share prices it is unlikely that any such offer would be at a substantial premium to Freeserve's share price," the company said in a statement. One source told Reuters on Tuesday that Wanadoo, which had also recently been talking to French ISP LibertySurf about a potential merger, was in very early stages of takeover talks with Freeserve. "Wanadoo is in talks, but they are at a very early stage and may not lead to anything," one source told Reuters. "But there are also others," another source said. There has been speculation that Britain's largest cable TV group NTL, which is partly owned by France Telecom, was interested in a tie-up with Freeserve, although the ISP has also been closely linked with UK telecoms operator Energis. Joining forces with a large ISP on the continent would help Freeserve share investments in a wide range of new services such as mobile phone access and instant messaging. Rumours that Freeserve was in talks with a number of European ISPs - including Wanadoo and Italy's Tiscali - have circulated since merger talks with Germany's T-Online collapsed in June. Source: Reuters Colt’s Shares Hits Year Low In Telecoms Slump The banking telecoms specialist, down 4.2% at 1558p by 10 a.m., has lost almost a quarter of its value since announcing third-quarter results two weeks ago. The stock was also suffering from a lack of information on Colt's plans for offering high- speed DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) Internet connections and the uncertainty over who will succeed Colt co-founder Paul Chisholm as chief executive when he steps down next year. Elsewhere in the sector, Redstone Telecom Plc extended its slide after yesterday’s news of increased first-half losses, slumping seven percent to 200p Source: Reuters Broadband Licence Winners Announced The provisional licence winners are: Energis Local Access Ltd - six licences in Greater London, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, Yorkshire, Scotland and Northern Ireland; Norweb Telecom Ltd – four licences in Greater Manchester, West Midlands, Yorkshire and North England; Faultbasic Ltd – three licences in Greater London, Greater Manchester and West Midlands; Broadnet UK Ltd - one licence in Greater London; Chorus Communication Ltd - one licence in Northern Ireland; and, Eircom NI Ltd - one licence in Northern Ireland. Patricia Hewitt said, "As a result of this auction 60% of the UK's population will have access to a new source of high speed internet. This will provide competition to fibre, cable links, DSL phone lines and satellite, which also offer access to broadband services. It will add to the broadband coverage provided by these technologies and bring us closer to the delivery of broadband services across the UK.” "We will work with public and private sector stakeholders to pull together various broadband initiatives that are being pursued at national, regional and local level into an effective programme for getting broadband services to every part of the UK." A total of 16 licences were sold at a total cost of £38,160,000. There has been much speculation before the auction commenced that this form of technology could be a viable alternative to ADSL and cable. That it would fill the gaps where ADSL and cable is not available in the more remote areas of the country. But the turnout of the auction demonstrated this might not be the case. Totalise Now Trading On AIM Launched in July 1999, Totalise plc has raised the necessary minimum £2 million by way of an equity fundraising and guaranteed bank facilities. The £2 million total was a result of raising £200,000 via a Placing of 952,390 Ordinary shares at 21p per share, £617,505 from the Offer for Subscription of 2,940,500 Ordinary shares at 21p per share and a further £1,182,495 by way of bank facilities guaranteed by Dr. Peter Gregory, Founder and CEO of Totalise. This capitalises the Company at £8.7 million. Certificates are expected to be despatched on November 27th. The Company also announces today that its online car dealing service, Eurekar, has already taken confirmed orders for over 1,000 cars worth £15 million in the first year of operation; Eurekar has also signed deals to supply cars to jamjar.com, the Internet car dealer owned by Direct Line E Commerce Ltd, and D.C. Cook plc. Madasafish Launches Its Own Magazine Produced by Future Publishing’s Contract Publishing division, Madasafish, the magazine, will be hitting the news stands on November 23rd priced at £1.50. The initial print run is 50,000, with 20,000 going to the news stands and 30,000 being distributed free to Madasafish’s heaviest users. The glossy 84 page Madasafish magazine will, it is hoped, become a monthly edition. It will continue to be produced by Future’s Contract Publishing group who currently publish seven titles, offering clients the opportunity to enhance branding and customer loyalty through a magazine. Forrest Duncan of Madasafish comments: “This venture into the world of print demonstrates how multimedia Madasafish truly are. Other ISPs may have put out membership magazines in the past but Madasafish are first in this country to adopt such a proactive approach offline to the question of customer retention and customer acquisition.” He stressed ‘Madasafish’ will be an assorted mix of editorial, carefully designed to appeal to the ISP’s demographic, including the most prolific users. NTL Cuts High Speed Cable Pricing In Half Around three million homes across the UK will now be able to access the high speed Internet service from NTL offering download speeds up to 512kbps for just £19.99 per month - a 50% reduction on other broadband options available. A new 'starter' cable modem service is also available for just £9.99 a month in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Surrey and Hampshire. It will offer download speeds of up to 64Kbps and all the benefits of a permanently on connection over the cable TV network. All new customers now also have the option of renting a cable modem - for an extra £5 per month on top of the standard subscription fee. The offer is open to new customers who subscribe before the end of the year. Existing customers will benefit from the new tariffs effective from November 17th. IGClick Refute Customer Claims A spokesman for IGClick denies these allegations, claiming that users are only taken off the service if they are using it to run a business. "Some of our staff accepted business customers on to the residential service and in these cases we will offer an upgrade or compensation," he said. The spokesman denies that the firm has set up a 30-minute cut-off, claiming this is due to a technical hitch.So what about the word “unlimited” that has been removed from the site? Also the home users that were thrown off and branded as business users because they used the service too much? I appreciate that the 30 minute cut-off was a problem with the server. But the state of the service has left customers fed up and angry. The 25MB of web space originally offered has never appeared and now a 128K connection requires paying out another £80. Emails go unanswered and today ours was returned undeliverable, over a fortnight after it was sent. But not to worry, IGClick now has a new premium rate phone line. The Future Of The Net - New Technology Needed Worldwide internet data traffic is doubling every three to four months as hundreds of millions of people go online, but it would seem that the infrastructure is not growing at the same speed. As Internet traffic is transformed into bundles of multicoloured beams of light that cross oceans through thousands of miles of optical fibre, there is a growing need for superfast connection points where these waves of light roll in. Without them, the Internet will choke. The capacity of a single optical fibre doubles only every 12 months, three to four times slower than data traffic. While this bottleneck can be solved by digging more cables into the ground, it relays the problem to the next stage, the intersections where these fibres come together. Microelectronic chips in these traffic centres, which forward the data to the next junction, double their speed at an even slower rate -- every 18 months. This shows that the Internet will come to a grinding halt unless new technologies are introduced, Professor Aharan Agranat of Hebrew University says. Recent numbers show that the hunt is on for the latest optical technology, mainly being developed in just two regions in the world: Israel and Silicon Valley. Source: Yahoo Oftel - Carrier pre-selection to be introduced Carrier pre-selection will be introduced in December 2000 for national and international calls with the service extended to local calls and other main call types by the end of 2001. Until each CPS call option is available, a substitute service will be available for the relevant call option using auto-diallers located in customers' premises. This is known as interim carrier pre-selection. As a result of a High Court judgement on ICPS costs on 4 August, Oftel has reviewed the methodology from its Amended Determination of 11 April 2000 which applies to any ICPS services that have been offered since 1 April 2000. As a result, BT’s proportion of the total costs of ICPS will increase, although BT’s actual costs will fall as a result of substituting in the cost of a cheaper type of dialler, in accordance with the ruling. New Unmetered Offering Maybe On The Horizon From LineOne September of this year saw the withdrawal of LineOne's first unmetered package with telco 'Quip' after a huge response from consumers meant that the service was too costly to run effectively, and was no longer viable. "We launched an unmetered service earlier this year based on information given to us at the time. Given experience and hindsight, this clearly wasn't the right time," said Mary Turner, managing director at the company. "But that doesn't mean we will shrink away and hide - there is still a need for unmetered access." According to Turner, LineOne is looking at the possibility of offering its users a new unmetered service when it becomes "commercially viable" to do so. The ISP currently offers an off-peak service based on BT's wholesale Surftime package, but said it is looking at all the options available. Other ISPs, including World Online and Claranet, have recently said that companies will be restricted in the pricing of unmetered services until BT's wholesale tariff, Friaco (flat-rate internet access call origination), becomes widely available. LineOne has admitted that Friaco is one option it is looking at, but said its primary focus at the moment is to develop itself as the portal of choice for busy people. "We try to be innovative for our customers and we are looking to whatever is suitable and commercially viable. But at this point in time the core of our strategy is to become the ultimate destination portal for time-starved individuals," Turner told vnunet.com. A new revamped website will also be launched by the company at the beginning of December - its main focus is establishing itself as the content rich access provider aimed at busy 30-45 year-olds. TUC - Human Rights About Email Discussed The TUC has called on employers to collaborate with unions and draw up the guidelines as TUC General Secretary John Monks said that recent legislation had left many employees wary of possibly breaching the Act, and worries about being snooped on where of great concern. There was fear and concern that employers might over-react and ban their employees email for personal use outright. It was also suggested by the TUC that guidelines should warn employees that emails may be checked during periods of absence and may also be scanned for offensive content. The TUC suggested that The TUC recommends that employers allow email use for personal reasons within reasonable limits, and also calls on firms to respect the privacy of mail between unions and employees. From the other side of the fence, The Institute of Directors has already heaped condemnation on the Act. The IoD attacked it as an unnecessary piece of legislation that will be bad for business, leaving lawyers as the only beneficiaries. To clarify the situation, the Data Protection Commission has launched a consultation exercise on a draft code of practice on the use of personal data in employer/employee relationships, that is due to run until January 5, 2001. Part 6 of the draft suggests that email monitoring should be graded – that content should only be monitored for sufficient legitimate reasons and in cases where a traffic log is inadequate. Also recommended in the draft is that instead of detecting internet use, it should be prevented, and that company policy should, wherever possible, be enforced by technical means to restrict access rather than monitor behaviour. Source: Netimperative, Freeserves Shares Are On The Up Analysts speculate that Italy's Tiscali and French ISP Wanadoo are aiming to bid for Freeserve, resulting in Tiscali, however, have denied interest in bidding for the ISP. Despite good news over the rise there are fears that retailer Dixons Group will sell its 80 per cent stake in the company as Dixon's shares remained at 217p. Dixons' shares remain far behind their peaks of 900p in March. These issues, combined with Freeserve's disrupted progress toward unmetered access in the UK, could cause investor interest to dampen. A spokesman for Freeserve said one of the key reasons for the rise is Freeserve's consistent good performance in the sector. Source: Silicon.com Unmetered Service Faces Possible Legal Action IG Click have got a name for themselves recently with their actions which include users losing 128K support unless they take out another account, a premium rate number was introduced for the support line at a time when everyone was trying to get in touch to find out what was going on, failure to answer calls and emails, hanging up on customers when they ask to speak to a manager, booting off users for no apparent reason, the list goes on and on. They now appear to have introduced a 30-minute cut-off period, although this may just be yet another problem with IG Click and could possibly be fixed shortly. It has also emerged that they have started another round of terminations to ease the load as a regular visitor has sent us this email from IG Click: Dear customers,Has anyone else received a ‘Dear John’ email recently? In their original contract they offered ‘unlimited’ unmetered access, and now the word has conveniently vanished. Customers who signed up when it was initially an unlimited service are now being kicked off for heavy use. This isn’t just bad business practice, it’s also illegal. Any customers who are in this position should contact their local trading standards office to find out what their rights are. Christmas Virus Warning Vnunet reports that Antivirus companies are warning of an internet worm, previously thought to be of little harm, which struck 10 of the Fortune 500 companies in the US on Friday. The 'christmas card virus', according to Network Associates, Navidad, appears to be an email Christmas card, and is an internet worm that uses an email protocol to spread. The worm is also reported to be hitting companies in the UK, including a large media organisation. You can read the rest of the report by clicking HERE. Open Mail Servers Abused By Spammers Results In Blacklisting For MSN The Bulletin says: "We have recently received a number complaints about open mail servers on the MSN system. This means that the servers will accept mail from people that do not have valid MSN accounts, and also allow them to send the mail to addresses not on MSN's domains - for obvious reasons, open mail servers are ripe for abuse by spammers." Until MSN can correct this problem, several mail servers in question have been placed on the organisations (MAPS) Relay Spam Stopper (RSS) list. MAPS maintains a database of spammers, and is a California non-profit organisation. However, there are some who beleive that MAPS is interfering with their businesses and their actions have resulted in a steady accumulation of lawsuits. In this case, MAPS has caused some difficulty with legitimate mail on the MSN network, which it says it can do nothing about because the RSS can't be tweaked with enough precision to avoid throwing out the baby with the bath water. The compromise here is to block all traffic from individual servers clearly associated with large quantities of spam. Unfortunately, this is the only way to defeat the offending pink substance with any degree of confidence, as rules-based filters are even less precise, often stopping a good deal more legitimate mail. The RSS is a DNS-based list of spam-relaying mail servers for use by ISPs and others running SMTP servers. "If you run your own mail server, you can configure it to utilize our list, if you'd like to refuse mail from these types of servers. Please note that if you do this, you may also refuse some legitimate (non-spam) mail, as some 'bad' servers may also have good users on them," MAPS notes. Several complaints have already been received by the organisation ffrom those whose regular mail has been interrupted as a result of adding MSN to the RSS. Breathe - A New Unmetered Package Promised In March of this year Breathe offered their original unmetered package for a one-off charge of £50, with a restricted sign-up to 50,000 users. This week has seen the announcement from Oftel yesterday that stated BT must provide other operators with a flat-rate internet access product from next year. In relation to this, Sean Gardner, Breathe's chief operating officer said: "We are definitely planning to introduce a new unmetered package next year as we have been planning this for several months, but it is very much dependent on the availability of Friaco - [BT's wholesale tariff for offering rivals unmetered access over its lines]. Oftel's announcement is a very positive move and will reinforce our ability to offer a sustainable unmetered package." Vnunet has reported that users for Breathe's penny-per-minute service, will need a BT phone line and a credit or debit card. However, users will be billed by Breathe, and will be able to view and manage their account online. According to Gardner, customers will see a number of different tariffs for accessing the internet and not all users will be interested in having unmetered access. "We have a number of customers who don't use the internet that frequently and the penny-per-minute tariff will be another option available for them," he said. Meanwhile, Breathe has said it is also considering repeating the free unmetered Wap calls service for its mobile subscribers once the offer closes at the end of this month. The ISP offers 24x7 freephone Wap access to Orange and One 2 One users. The other UK operators charge for 0800 calls. "The offer has been going really well and has seen our subscriber base increase fourfold," said Gardner. "We would consider repeating the offer again and hope to extend the offer to customers of all network operators." It looks like things may certainly pick up again in the unmetered market in the New Year..... what do you think? BT’s Genie To Offer Unmetered Net Mobile Access "We're directly responding to the needs of the mobile generation who rely on the Internet to manage their busy lives," said Genie Managing Director Kent Thexton in a statement. "Genie is able to offer the most competitive and compelling tariffs on the market because we are cutting out the middleman and passing on cost savings directly to our customers," he said. Under the deal, customers buying online through Genie would be able to choose tariffs which offer unmetered WAP and/or text messaging as part of the monthly subscription. A pre-pay option would be available shortly. Telewest Back On Track Announcing third-quarter results at the top end of analysts' forecasts, Telewest Chief Executive Adam Singer promised a "wobble-free" future for the company with substantial growth in subscribers. Pre-tax earnings for the first nine months of the year rose 9% to £180m, compared with forecasts between £170-180m. Singer said Telewest, the smaller of the UK's two main cable operators, had 315,000 digital sales as of Tuesday and remained confident of reaching its target of 500,000 by the end of the first quarter of next year. He voiced frustration with the market's reaction to the box shortage, which sent Telewest shares tumbling to less than a fifth of their peak value. "There was a perception that there was just a first hint of a wobble," he told Reuters. "This is definitely a company that is solid and wobble-free." The set-top box problem, caused by a global famine of a programmable computer chip, cost it a small dip of some 6,000 of its 1.6 million residential subscribers. But the resumed marketing of digital services in October after a three-month gap produced a record month for sales. All digital customers now had access to interactive services, which provide Internet-style shopping and e-mail through the TV. Telewest also highlighted success at its Internet division Blueyonder. This has more than 200,000 subscribers, making it the biggest service provider within its franchise areas. Singer said he believed its dial-up users had the lowest failure-to-connect rates in the industry. Source: Reuters Tiny Online’s New Internet Deal Although details are a bit thin on the ground at the moment, more will be known when it is made available next week. The new Internet service will be called T-Surf and will offer 1,000 minutes of Net access every month. Priced at £9.99 per month, the service will be made available from Tuesday at http://www.tinyonline.net/tsurf Unmetered ISP Struggles With Unlimited Service We have mentioned this ISP a few times in the past for booting off users for no apparent reason. Also for changing their pricing which forced dual ISDN customers to pay up twice for another account which was originally included in the original package. Now they have changed the wording on their FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page which originally quoted the service as offering “unlimited access”. This is what Mike had to say: IG Click, the newcomer to the UK ISP market is fast becoming a joke among its customers, with poor service, booting users off, trading standards investigation and the latest underhand change to the contract:A copy of the email was also sent to Trading Standards. 11 Million Online In The UK Every Month According research by MMXI Europe, use of the Internet in the UK is growing at a phenomenal rate. Overall, the average amount of time people are spending on the Internet each month has increased from four hours seventeen minutes in October 1999 to five hours forty-seven minutes in September 2000. Men continue to dominate use of the Internet, but MMXI Europe figures for the past 12 months show that women are catching up with the 2 to 17 years age group as the fastest growing Internet fans showing an 89% rise in unique uisitor numbers from 1,224,000 in January to 2,312,000 in September. “This is the most comprehensive information available on internet use in the UK,” said Mari Kim Coleman, UK Managing Director of MMXI Europe. “A complete year of data allows us to see how Britain is behaving online, and how much the web has become part of our lives. As the population grows and evolves, we can see people spending more time and viewing more content online. The first year of data shows how eagerly the British have embraced the Internet.” she said. Oftel Slammed By Select Committee At an extraordinary Department of Industry Select Committee hearing, chaired by Martin O’Neill, Labour MP for Ochil, Mr Edmonds was fiercely criticised by MPs for allowing Britain to fall behind Germany and The Netherlands in opening up local telephone exchanges to competition. Britain’s 6,000 or so local exchanges are still owned and controlled by BT. The hearing could prove a blow to Mr Edmonds’ s chances of becoming a “super-regulator” for the broadcasting and telecoms industries when the regulatory system is overhauled next year. Mr Edmonds, a former civil servant who became head of Oftel two years ago, was, until recently, widely tipped for the job. BT’s local exchanges are seen as the key to providing homes and businesses with US-style Internet services that offer access to the Web at up to ten times the speed of conventional computer modems. The fact that these kind of services are already on offer in parts of continental Europe has been a blow to Tony Blair, who wants Britain to become the “digital capital” of the world. Mr Edmonds was also criticised yesterday for failing to make mobile phone tariffs easy to understand; failing to stimulate competition in the market for “leased lines”; and failing to prevent phone boxes being closed down while the price of calls from them rose. In response, he said that Oftel’s dealings with BT on opening up its exchanges had been like “trench warfare”. He even joked that he had been tempted to try to throw Sir Peter Bonfield, BT chief executive, into jail for his behaviour. “I don’t think it (the opening-up of BT’s exchanges) is a mess,” he said. “We’re going through a very, very difficult implementation phase.” He said if competition was not introduced by the end of next year, he would have failed in his task. BT’s competitors are desperate to get access to the exchanges so that they can offer high-speed Internet services. But even though the issue has been debated for six years, it will be July before the first BT exchanges are opened up. Source: The Times AOL France Temporarily Limits Unmetered Users The troubles are part of the process to prove to politicians and telco regulators throughout Europe, and especially in the UK, that there is demand for unmetered access said a European spokesman for AOL. "AOL France has to show to France Telecom that there is clear consumer demand, this was the prime motivator for launching the service. This was a promotion to prove a clear point to the policy makers. Internet access is political," he said. French users are now being limited during peak hours, and when they log on a pop-up screen warns of the congestion, followed by an alarm ten minutes before the user is disconnected. An AOL France spokeswoman said: "Our offer generated more interest than we expected. We had made plans and we did prepare for the interest, but even with all our preparations we underestimated how powerful the demand in France is for unmetered access. AOL France will invest FF600m to install 60,000 points of access, and plans to double the number of staff at its customer service centre in an attempt to alleviate the network congestion, but AOL could not specify how long the limitation would last: "This is only a temporary measure and it's a fair way to allow a maximum number of people to connect at peak times. It only affects three per cent of our subscribers though." "We have waged an 18 month epic battle with BT to demonstrate that consumers want unmetered access but we showed the demand with consumer testing and market research. For more than a year AOL UK has been negotiating with BT, through Oftel, to implement Friaco (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination), the wholesale tarrif BT charges ISPs to use its network. Currently, ISPs are charged on a per second basis, which means anyone wanting to offer an unmetered services has to subsidise users - and makes heavy usage very costly for the service provider. In France, network providers are similarly dependent on France Telecom for internet capacity. AOL UK claims the Friaco agreement - which could be in place next February - will prevent a similar situation occuring in Britain. AOL is now in discussions with French telco regulator ART and the French National Assembly about the possibility of introducing a Friaco infrastructure within France. Freeserve Billing Cock-Up Results In Bailiff Threat The Register today reported that Freeserve sent out “hundreds of thousands of emails” to its customers saying that unless they pay up within 7 days, they will be cut off from the Freeserve Time package. An estimated 250,000 people received an email beginning: "According to our records, the following amount is outstanding on your account: £xx.xx. If the amount shown above remains outstanding, you should note that under the terms of your agreement with us you are required to pay by direct debit and if we are unable to collect the amounts due by direct debit, the debt will be forwarded to an external agency for manual collection and may result in the Service being suspended or cancelled."Several customers have contacted Freeserve to find out what is going on and were told that the billing system had packed in and was unable to provide a record of who has paid what. Customers are being asked to provide proof of payment. Freeserve booted off around 700 users last month for using the service more than they would of liked. In the past few days Freeserve carried out another culling of 600 customers, informing them that their accounts will be terminated. Although feedback received from visitors suggests that many customers on the first announcement list are still connected to the service. Broadband Auctions Suspended The suspension of the auction until Wednesday left the total proceeds at less than £36.5 million, compared with pre-auction estimates of a final tally of £1 billion or more. It was the second time a bidder has used its one-time right to call a recess. Two companies have withdrawn from the auction for broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA), a technology that uses radio waves to transmit data at 35 times the speed of dial-up Internet services. Eight companies remain in the running for 42 licences, but have so far snubbed more than half the regions on offer. Energis leads the bidding with 4.5 million pounds for one of three London licences. The government's Radiocommunications Agency is attempting to step up the pace when the auction resumes by raising the "minimum activity level" that determines how many licences each company must bid for. The bidders -- which include eircom and Norweb Telecom, part of United Utlities -- are competing for the right to beam Internet services into buildings from radio base stations. The other bidders are Broadnet UK, owned by Comcast Corp; Chorus Communications, owned by Liberty Media and Ireland's Independent News and Media; Faultbasic, part of XO Communications; Formus Communications UK; and Winstar Communications of the United States. Source: Reuters Freeserve Boots Off Another 600 Users A spokesman said the company had stopped accepting new users three weeks ago for its "unlimited Freeserve time" which allowed them to log on as much as they wanted (almost) at any time and for just £10 a month. The suspension was to ensure the rapidly expanding network was strong enough to cope with huge demand, he said. Surfers have flocked to Freeserve since many other operators which planned to offer flat-fee access gave up due to the heavy costs. Lighter users can still sign up for an off-peak unmetered package but this has now risen in price from £6 to £9 a month. Freeserve has 2 million dial-up users, and a quarter of a million of them are on the flat-fee monthly plans -- which the company has to subsidise as it still pays the telecoms provider by the minute. Some 600-700 people who stayed online for about 17 hours a day have already been cut off for breaking what the company says is its condition of "reasonable" use. The spokesman said about another 600 had been informed their contracts would also be terminated shortly for the same reason. Unmetered access is costing Freeserve some £2 to £5 per user per month on average and it will stay this way until the arrival of a new pricing plan under which companies like Freeserve can buy call time wholesale for a true flat fee. Source: Reuters Oftel Urges BT To Provide New Unmetered Product The new product is a major enhancement of the current wholesale product, known as FRIACO, that takes unmetered Internet traffic from the customer as far as BT’s local exchange. With FRIACO, operators have faced additional costs to convey the calls onto their own network. The new product, which will hopefully be available from February 2001, will carry Internet traffic on an unmetered basis from the consumer’s home to the network of a competing operator. Oftel has also proposed a number of measures to enable BT’s network to cope with the anticipated large amounts of Internet traffic generated by increasing availability and use of unmetered Internet tariffs. These include taking other operators’ Internet calls off BT’s network earlier by greater use of interconnection points between BT and other operators’ networks at BT’s local exchanges that are adjacent to BT’s trunk exchanges. BT must also provide additional capacity on their trunk network specifically for Internet traffic. Commenting on the proposals, David Edmonds Director General of Telecommunications said measures were needed to cope with the expected huge growth in Internet traffic that the new flat rate service is likely to generate. "Our experts found that the volume of Internet traffic on BT’s network is doubling every ten months and unmetered Internet access is likely to increase this growth rate even faster. The experts said that action had to be taken or else BT’s trunk network could be in danger of being over-stretched by mid-2001.” "Oftel’s proposals will give a major boost to the availability of unmetered Internet access for consumers. These measures should allow millions of people to have unlimited access to the Internet without worrying running up high call charges." All we need now is an ISP watchdog to protect the consumers. Atlantic And Kingston To Join Forces Here is an extract from the article in the Sunday Times today: It is thought Atlantic and Kingston are considering sharing their resources to reduce the financial burden of introducing digital subscriber line (DSL) services. DSL technology, which relies on access to the copper wires that connect homes and businesses to British Telecommunications' exchanges, is the key to providing the high-speed Internet access that will become increasingly important over the next few years.Click here to read the article in full. Rivals Urged To Move Near BT Exchanges BT told their rivals on Friday that they could speed up the launch of high-speed Internet technology if they used buildings near its exchanges. The operators could be enforced to meet the costs of buying nearby houses or renting office space close to exchanges because for 410 exchanges it would be necessary to install equipment in 'adjacent' buildings. Oftel had suggested a total of 720 exchanges to be available for installing ADSL technology, but BT told their rivals they only expect to make at least 600 of its 6,000 exchanges available. This would occur in the process of local loop unbundling between January and June and after June, BT expects to prepare 200 facilities a month shared equally between exchange rooms and nearby buildings. The e-commerce minister, Patricia Hewitt, earlier claimed that unbundling will be widespread by June, but the fact that only ten percent of exchanges will be unbundled may be seen to go against this target. The meeting with other operators, which took place at an Oftel forum Friday morning, followed discussions between Hewitt and BT some two weeks ago. Hewitt has also been meeting with BT's rivals, which have complained to her that the company is obstructing unbundling. Oftel's director of operations Anne Lambert said in a statement: "BT has today committed itself to clear timescales for the preparation of exchange sites where its competitors can install their equipment to take over loops." A spokesman said it was not claiming there was not enough room in the exchanges, an issue regulator Oftel said Friday it did not anticipate would be significant problem in most exchanges. It was pressing operators to look more carefully at the idea of "distant location" because it would be quicker than if it had to prepare space in its exchanges. "Our proposals will substantially boost early availability of unbundling," Ian Morfett, BT's director of regulatory affairs, said in a statement. "However, Oftel has made it clear to BT that it expects further improvements to be made and we will ensure that no resources are spared in preparing its exchanges as quickly as possible." BT also put forward proposals to accelerate the initial surveying of popular exchanges as they planned to speed up order taking for unbundled loops. BT Finally Speeds Up Unbundling Of The Loop At an Oftel forum attended by representatives of other UK telecommunications operators, BT made firm proposals developed in the light of experience gained working with the industry. LLU is intended to enable other operators to rent BT's local lines and run their own services over them. The plan provides opportunities for the industry to work with BT to launch LLU in an initial 600 exchange areas progressively between January and June 2001, using a combination of facilities within BT exchanges and in nearby buildings. Ian Morfett, BT's director, regulatory affairs, said: "BT is working flat out on the complex process of unbundling. It has delivered all its commitments to date in a challenging programme and is determined to maintain that record. We need the rest of the industry to play its part in turn to meet our common objectives.“ "We have always said that we would examine ways to speed unbundling, if and when we were confident that it could be done successfully.” "The past month's experience is significant in giving us a fuller understanding of what is practicable.” "Our proposals will substantially boost early availability of unbundling. The UK already has more competing local loop infrastructure than anywhere else in Europe, and this package will position the UK firmly as one of the leading European countries in the practical delivery of LLU. We see significant commercial value in LLU across Europe and expect it to bring exciting opportunities for our ventures in other EU countries." New ADSL Service From Dircon According to Netimperative.com, the service is based on BT’s wholesale ADSL product: The package is very similar in price to many of the other business packages on the market. Direct ADSL 500 (500kbps downstream) costs £100 per month. Direct ADSL 1000 (1Mbps downstream) costs £160 and Direct ADSL 2000 (2Mbps downstream) is £210 per month. All three packages incur a £270 installation fee.For a list of other ADSL services currently available, check out our ADSL listing. AOL And Littlewoods In Joint Marketing Deal Meanwhile AOL will promote Littlewoods product ranges across the company's multiple online brands. Littlewoods, who currently offer over 40,000 products on line, will additionally distribute a specially co-branded version of AOL’s subscription-free service Netscape Online. The agreement covers all Littlewoods 275 retail stores as well as the Index Extra and Littlewoods Catalogue Club home shopping channels. AOL UK will promote Littlewoods extensive range of adult and children's clothing, home furnishings, toys and consumer goods in the Shopping Channels of its AOL and CompuServe subscription services in the UK, as well on the aol.co.uk portal and on the company's subscription-free service, Netscape Online. AOL UK Managing Director Karen Thomson said, "We are enjoying incredible momentum and member growth - which is set now to accelerate with the launch of our ground-breaking AOL FLAT RATE unmetered Internet access plan. More than a million UK households have already discovered a whole new world online through AOL. We are excited that those opportunities are now being extended yet further through our alliance, announced today, with Littlewoods, one of the UK's best-known retailers." Debt Burdened BT In £10 Billion Shake-Up In what could be the biggest shake-up since privatisation in 1984, BT will float 25% of its wireless and network division, BT Wireless next year and create a network company, NetCo, with the intention of floating a 25% stake. BT also announced it would list 25% of Yellow Pages subsidiary Yell by the end of the financial year and by the end of 2001. BT will also develop its Internet business BT Ignite so it too could be listed. Bonfield said that BT has already exceeded its job cuts of 3,000 management positions, but this would continue further still. At least another 2,000 jobs are still to go by the end of the year. BT trial internet voice calls Making a phone call will never be the same again according to BT and their Open employees will be able to communicate with each other via realtime voice and multimedia Internet link. ZDNet report that critics of the telecoms giant are saying that voice-over-IP may turn out to be a disaster for BT: Vice president of Internet services Craig Boundy believes voice calls over the Internet will be commonplace soon. "BT Ignite's ultimate goal is for everyone to be using the Internet for real-time communications," he says. That vision will require the roll out of ADSL, which, says Boundy will be the perfect way of providing people with subscription-based voice calls. "Obviously people will want calls on a subscription basis. ADSL presents us with an opportunity to provide voice over IP (VoIP)." Although Internet calls should not cost users any more than their Internet access fee BT admits it is considering hiking the monthly subscription price for the broadband service. "We have to recover the costs of implementing voice over IP but whether this would mean a raised subscription fee has not been agreed yet." BTopenworld currently charges £39.99 for its ADSL service and BT Ignite will spend £5bn on its IP infrastructure across Europe in the next three years. Totalise Launches Its Own Credit Card The card uses the slogan, ‘Mutually Rewarding’, because cardholders receive the equivalent in Totalise shares of 1% of card purchases and balance transfers each time they use their card (up to £5,000 per month) free of charge. The InterMutual Card is the first of a series of personal financial services products to be launched by InterMutual. Cardholders will benefit from a competitive fixed APR of 4.9% for the first six months (for both balance transfers and purchases), moving to 15.9% variable thereafter. Also, cardholders who have signed up to Totalise’s ‘The Ultimate Surf’ Internet access package will get a rebate with a £10 credit on their Totalise Telecom account. Each quarter, Totalise will allot shares, based on the amount a cardholder has spent and the average share price over the five days preceding the end of that quarter. BTopenworld Announces TV Internet Deal With Ondigital ONnet is available to ONdigital subscribers at a monthly subscription of £5 and requires connection t | ||