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ic24 extend unmetered hours Originally providing totally free access to the Internet to the weekend between 9am and 5pm, ic24 will be expanding their offer to include weekday evenings between 8pm and midnight. From this Tuesday until the end of October, users will be able to surf the Internet totally free with no strings attached. This brings the total weekly free access to 36 hours. As with the 9 - 5 weekend offer, to take advantage of the increased offer, all you have to do is access the Internet via a FREE 0800 number. You can change your Internet dial up settings easily by visiting www.ic24.net and either clicking on the 'FREE online time' box, or selecting 'ic24 for FREE' from the drop down menu, and following the instructions.The statement from ic24 comes in the same week as breathe announced that 500 users had their accounts closed for heavy use although they had paid for the privilege of 24/7 access. Virgin and NTL in business deal The deal will see NTL take over Virgin.net’s 560,000 dial-up Internet customers, while Virgin will own the entertainment and leisure portal. The move will make NTL the UK’s third largest ISP and will double its customer figures to over one million. Vnunet voices the need for ISP watchdog We have said this before at net4nowt.com, there needs to be an independent government body to protect the interests of the consumer. Recently there have been many unmetered ISPs that have had difficulties and as a result they have had to end or limit their services. Only this week breathe was the source of controversy when they kicked out 500 of its “heavy users”. Consumers have no clear idea of what action they can take against such decisions. They need guidance and protection from such an organisation that is set-up to protect them. There is one such organisation called the Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA). At the moment they are the nearest thing to an independent government body. They will investigate a complaint if an ISP has broken the ISPA Code of Practice. Although membership is not compulsory. One such ISP currently being probed by the ISPA is LineOne. They were the subject of abuse recently when they announced that they were ending their existing unmetered service in favour of the BT Surftime package from September. This involves paying a monthly fee. At the moment customers receive 24/7 access in return for spending a minimum of £5 on telephone calls per month which is routed through the Quip! network via a dialler box which costs £20. We also reported on Tuesday that customers were still waiting for their refunds from the failed unmetered ISP Buzzline. It has now been 7 weeks since the Managing Director Adrian Pollock announced that they were going to call it a day. Other services such as gas, electric and telephone all have regulatory bodies. Until the government implement such a body for ISPs, then Tony Blair’s vision for the future with every household to have access to the Internet will be a minefield for consumers. World Online teams up with F1 in sponsorship deal Commencing this weekend, the company's distinctive logo will feature on the nose, "barge boards" and rear wing end plates of the BAR Honda 002 chassis, as well as the overalls of drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta. World Online International, who has its headquarters in the Netherlands, was founded in 1996. Through its operations in 16 countries, it has 3.7 million registered subscribers as of June 30th. It successfully provides 24/7 Internet access in the UK by transferring customers to its telco, recently taken over from Localtel. World Online International Chief Executive Officer, Simon Duffy commented, "In line with our strategy, we look forward to distributing BAR's dynamic content, as we do for other content partners. We are excited about building a solid relationship with BAR Honda, as we both aim to be best-of-class teams." Ex-employee attacks unmetered ISP In it, he exposes revelations about the problems faced by the staff based at Dundee. He claims the owner Matt went out and bought a new state of the art PC and a new car while the staff were paid in “dribs and drabs”. Their salary was getting later and later, as well as a cut in staff figures from around 22 to just five in an otherwise expanding ISP. The writer also alleges that the owner of EzeSurf is being investigated by the Inland Revenue and the employment service. He goes on to say, “Don't get me totally wrong, Ezesurf is has great potential but with Matt in charge be wary be very wary. With the right leadership and right frame of mind towards the customers Ezesurf could be the next biggest corporation in recent years. But in Matt's hands is more likely to spiral into the depths of oblivion." For the rest of the email visit ISPreview. Correction: We would like to point out that although we first came across the news story at ISPreview, the email was actually first published at PlanetInferno. BT blames lack of engineers for ADSL delay Currently there is a wait of up to two months for businesses and consumers who wish BT to install the new broadband service. But the ISP Zen Internet claims they have no waiting list. Sales manager at Zen Internet Rod Fielding says, "There is a limited supply. BT is rationing it out, initially allowing one order per day and now four per day," he says. "But if we take an order today it means delivery next week." ISP Zen has been supplying UK businesses with broadband services since the beginning of July. A 512Kbps service costs £110 per month, a 2Mbps service £190. Breathe responds to media exposure They have now started to email their remaining customers informing them of why they took the action against the users on their supposedly 24/7 service: You may have seen in the press or on the web that we have taken action to remove users from the breathe freely service. We have taken this action in the interests of retaining the quality of service for the vast majority of users who do not use unmetered access in a manner that affects the service levels of other subscribers.An article at ZDNet says that one user managed to clock up 29 hours a day by putting two lines through one number. The Chief Operating Officer Sean Gardner, was quoted as saying; "When we said unmetered we didn't mean that people could leave their PCs on seven days a week, 24 hours a day," he says. "I guess we have to be clearer on communication. There is a spirit to this agreement and it is quite plain that six hours a day is a maximum." Breathe will also be launching a monthly subscription service from August. There will be a £10 per month service for 24/7 access and an off-peak option at £5 per month. Are you one of the users that have had their accounts closed? If so how much time did you spend connected to the Internet? Are breathe justified in their decision as it was only 1% of the overall subscription. Wanted... YOU! Applicants should have a good level of English and be knowledgeable with the Internet and in particular ISPs. If you are keen and wish to help us keep net4nowt.com up to date, then please drop me an email. Although we are asking that applicants must be over 18 years of age and not associated with any ISP. Bad hair day for BT Today BT have said that they have already had more than 100,000 orders for its high-speed ADSL Internet service but would not connect most homes until October or November. Customers were expecting to be connected this summer for the £39 per month service but they now face a wait of around 3 months. Internet users had already pushed back their expectations of when they would get BT's ADSL service from July to late summer. BT persuaded people to order ADSL early by waiving a £150 pound installation fee for those signing up before June 30th, although the order is not binding. So for Internet users living in rural areas, it looks like you will have to wait even longer before you can get ADSL. The ongoing issue of unbundling the local loop is also in the press again. This time the telecom company Fibernet Group have said that they are considering legal action over BT’s delay in opening up access to the last mile of wires into homes. BT are still standing by their date of July 2001 despite the European Commission saying they should bring the date nearer. Fibernet was talking to other operators about bringing a case, although no decisions had been taken. Unbundling will allow BT's competitors to deliver Internet and television services over fast, "always-on" telephone lines. BT and industry regulator Oftel have insisted they cannot move faster despite the possibility of legal action by the Commission. Fibernet spokesman Nigel Pitcher said the company and other operators believed BT should compensate them for not complying with a European Commission directive that it unbundle the local loop by the end of the year. Latest on Buzzline refunds We have tried recently to contact the Managing Director Adrian Pollock by phone, fax and email but have still not received any reply. It was June 6th when he announced he was going to terminate the unmetered service. Now exactly 7 weeks later he has still not refunded everyone’s account. If you are one of the unlucky ones who are still waiting, then I suggest you contact your credit card company at the end of next week. After 60 days your card company will investigate the debit with Buzzline’s bank. This goes for all card companies although some offer additional protection. If your card company discovers that you have received no goods or services after 60 days, they will credit your account. Alternatively, you could contact Buzzline’s Local Trading Standards Office: Angel StreetIf we do get a reply from Mr Pollock, we will let you know. Caledonian Internet stop new sign-ups In a statement on their sign-up page, EzeSurf resellers Caledonian Internet have announced that they will not be accepting any more new customers due to a lack of communication skills on the behalf of EzeSurf. Although we at Caledonian Internet Ltd., along with thousands of other individual users, are completely satisfied with the Ezesurf 0808 service when connected, we will no longer be accepting additional user sign-ups on their behalf.Due to the lack of contact with EzeSurf, there are also the obvious rumours that they will also be closing down shortly. We must state that at the moment they are only rumours as we have been unable to contact EzeSurf. Anyone from EzeSurf reading this and would like to comment then please email me at paul@net4nowt.com LineOne attacked by ISPA As a member of the Internet Services Providers Association, LineOne must under section 2.4 of the Code, “in its dealings with consumers, other businesses and each other... act decently, fairly and reasonably at all times.” In a letter to LineOne, ISPA have said that they have received a stack of complaints from customers. The main source of the complaints stem from the fact that they are not giving users a refund. Instead they are crediting their Quip! accounts with £20 worth of telephone calls. ISPA go on to say that they recommend that customers be provided with the option of a full refund of their £20, alongside the other offers of compensation. LineOne have been given 7 days to come up with a proposal on how they are going to resolve complaints. With the announcements recently from other ISPs saying that they were either ending or limiting their services, more and more customers have felt cheated and disappointed. Local Trading Standards or the Advertising Standards Authority can handle some complaints made against ISPs. But unless these ISPs become members of ISPA, then the consumer has very little protection when things start to go seriously wrong. With free 0845 ISPs, users can just change without any financial loss. However, with the many unmetered ISPs on the market, customers usually have to pay upfront or monthly to a company they know very little about. With Tony Blair’s vision of the future, more and more people will be getting connected to the Internet. An independent Government watchdog needs to be in place to protect the interests of the consumer. If you have a complaint with your telephone company for example, you can contact OFTEL. A problem with your gas company, you would contact OFGAS. A problem with your ISP? Unless they have voluntarily joined ISPA, then you will continue to have problems. Breathe kicks out heavy users Following the outrage caused last week when LineOne announced they were going to be ending their current unmetered access, another group of customers will be demanding action. breathe also state that they will also not be providing refunds. Is this legal? Instead, they will be providing £50 worth of calls to their pay-as-you-go 0845 service. This means that angry customers are unable to change over to another ISP in protest without the risk of losing their £50. The email from breathe states that they have concerns about the heavy demand put on their service caused by a small proportion of users. The terms and conditions of the breathe freely service allow us to disconnect users if we feel that their level of use puts our ability to supply the service at risk. It is with regret that we are writing to inform you that you fall into the group of highest users and we will no longer be able to provide the breathe freely service to you from 1pm Wednesday 26th July.The email then goes on to state that their current unmetered provision will be changing next month. Probably making use of the SurfTime package from BT, they will be providing an off-peak option as well as the 24/7 access with a monthly fee. Well it looks like they are all starting to crumble under the demand. Unable to support the service financially, ISPs are starting to look elsewhere to provide unmetered access and going for the SurfTime option. Although this is fine for BT customers, it is no good for everybody else. TheFreeInternet in shutdown rumours Someone calling herself Sarah left a posting saying that her boyfriend works on the customer service desk. He had told her that TFI will be closing this September and refunding everyone’s money. Recently we have seen LineOne make announcements that they were stopping their current unmetered access. There was also other announcements from Breathe, LibertySurf and Virgin who were all either limiting their service or delaying it. So we thought we should find out if there was any truth in the rumour. The Marketing Director Lister Park, denied that they were closing. This is what he told us: To put the record straight, TFI is open for business now and will still beSo there you have it, the official response from TheFreeInternet. Don’t believe everything you read on public notice boards. BT facing legal battle over local loop Last week the European Commission made a ruling that BT should open up the local loop by the end of the year. Now in a report in The Times, they could be facing a court battle with Colt, Energis and Easynet: Mike Grabiner, chief executive of Energis, said: "I would look seriously at joining such an action. More significant than the timescale is that BT has a significant advantage because it is able to offer DSL [digital subscriber line] services while it is not obliged to provide any wholesale interconnect."What are your comments? Will BT eventually meet the timescale set out by the EC or are they creating a monopoly in the unmetered Internet market? Update on LineOne refunds We have been flooded with angry emails since LineOne announced on Sunday that they were ending their current unmetered access and replacing it in September with BT Surftime. Existing customers were told that they were getting their Quip! account reimbursed with £20, supposedly to cover the cost of the adaptor. Now we have received an email from a visitor pointing out that he may be entitled to a refund. The email pointed out that if you have had adaptor for seven days or less and have not used it, or have not even received one yet, then under their terms and conditions you are entitled to a refund. If you are eligible and already have the adaptor then send it to the address below. Ensure you enclose a covering note saying that you wish to cancel that includes your name, telephone number and Quip! account number. EEscape LtdIf you have not yet received your adaptor then follow the instructions below from LineOne: * Go to Quip web site, http://www.quip.co.uk LineOne ends unmetered access As our primary long term aim is, and always has been, to provide high quality content and services for all our members, continuing to support this free Internet calls offer would inhibit future investment in the LineOne product.A bit of a disappointment really as many of you were happy with the Internet connection they provided. LineOne was also one of a few that provided a service for non-BT customers. As an existing LineOne/Quip! member we have arranged for you to continue to receive unlimited Internet calls (at the minimum £5 per month charge) until 30th September 2000. Also, at the end of September Quip! will automatically credit your Quip! account with £20 worth of phone calls.Yet once again, unless you are a BT customer you really are limited when it comes to choosing an unmetered ISP. Our inbox was flooded this morning with emails from you all informing us about LineOne ceasing their unmetered access. Many thanks to everyone for letting us know. Beta testers required for new software British Bulldog Software, the company behind the online game Fantasy ISP, will soon be releasing The Array. For the beta test, the program will constantly scroll all the latest ISP news headlines from ourselves and ISPreview. The program is Freeware and takes only a couple of minutes to download. Because the program is small, it will take up very little system resources. The beta test is in two stages. The first stage will remove most of the bugs before a full release. As a thank-you for taking part in stage one you will get a mention in the About box for The Array. The software has been fully tested so far, but running a beta test allows us to make sure the software works and works well. Also your ideas will be taken on and maybe included in the final release of the software. The beta test for stage one is only open to 100 users so you will have to be quick. Stage two will be available for everyone. To take part in the beta test, visit The Array. Demon Internet release unmetered pricing info Making use of the BT Surftime plan, Demon will be providing unmetered access to their Premier Connect (£11.75 per month) and Premier Connect Plus (£19.99 per month) customers. Both packages benefit from having discounted calls to the Internet in return for paying a monthly fee to Demon. Plus for an extra monthly fee of £5.99 to BT, customers receive off-peak unmetered access. However, the Premier Connect Plus package provides further discounts on Internet calls. As well as the off-peak option as above, there is also a 24/7 unmetered option for another £19.99 which is payable to BT. There is a table available from Demon clearly showing the pricing details. It does sound quite expensive, but if Demon keep up their usual high standards, it will be worthwhile for heavy users and businesses. There are no cut-off periods and 128K access is also possible. Update on Madasafish unmetered access In a recent email sent to one of their customers they said they did not want to suffer the problems faced by many of the present unmetered ISPs. We thought that we should keep you informed about the imminent launch of our unmetered access services. You will recall that we had aimed to launch these yesterday on the 10th of July. Unfortunately, this date has slipped by a few days as we finalise the service. We now expect to have the service ready for launch by the end of this month, so not too far away. Totally free Internet access for 100 users Now 24-7Freecall are giving away totally free Internet access for life to 100 lucky users. No monthly fee or call charges. On 24th July they will randomly select 100 emails from existing subscribers. You must be a paid up 24-7 Freecall subscriber before 23rd July to qualify. Blue Yonder price cut? Currently costing £50 per month, it is expected to go down to £33 per month later this month. The installation fee will also be dropped. To read the full story visit cablenews:uk. BT forced to unbundle local loop BT has always said that its July 2001 deadline is the only possible date for unbundling. Unbundling of the local loop is widely regarded as a key milestone to end domination of the telephone infrastructure by European incumbent operators and ensure the roll out of broadband is fairly priced and competitive. The EC has long preferred a December deadline for unbundling and heads of government -- including Tony Blair -- signed up to this at the Lisbon summit earlier this year.Click here to read the full article. Sniffing out an open road to the Internet Using the Surftime deal from BT (non-BT customers will already know that it’s a waste of time reading any further), Sniff Out will be providing a wide range of different options available from August. There is an off-peak unmetered option costing £3.99 plus a BT SurfTime charge of £5.99. Also a 24/7 residential option for £4.99 plus a BT SurfTime charge of £19.99. All options benefit from a local-rate support helpline. Users also receive unlimited email accounts and webspace. For further details on the options available click here. Unmetered access gets cheaper Originally costing £24.70 per month for 24/7 access, the ISP will be charging nearly £5 less per month from tomorrow (Wednesday). From 3pm the service will cost £19.99 per month. Existing customers will be automatically charged at the new rate. World Online visited by The Scream! They were met by the Managing Director Derick Martin, who amongst others, showed them around the headquarters at Godalming, Surrey. During the visit, they had the opportunity to get a few important questions answered. For a list of Q&A’s visit The Scream! forum. Latest on Buzzline refunds ”We have completed the bulk of refunds for the Buzzline service. We hope to have the remainder processed next week.We were told last month that refunds would be received by early July at the latest. If you haven’t received a refund yet, it looks like you will probably have to wait until the end of the month. On another issue, we have had to disable the news comments feature due to a problem with CGI on the server. In addition, the ISP vote and contact pages are out of order too. If you need to contact us please use paul@net4nowt.com AltaVista struggling with 500,000 pre-registrations According to The Telegraph, AltaVista admitted that the demand for their unmetered access was overwhelming. A spokesman for AltaVista said: "We have been aware of the problems people have had with some other free access services so we have limited the numbers to ensure they get a high quality of service."In addition to the £60 per year, 24/7 unmetered service, AltaVista will be bringing out two new options. They will be launching an off-peak option for around £10 per month, as well as a subscription-free 0845 dial-up service. Both additional services are to be launched within the next fortnight. JANET denies port scanning claims by RHA According to ISPreview it was more serious and that “these issues and investigations are still continuing and until we are satisfied that the proper security measures are in place we will not restore connectivity.” JANET has said on their site that they have been trying to contact RedHotAnt from April without much success. As we had received no replies to these messages (other than the autoresponse) we blocked the entire netrange from Friday 30th June to protect JANET over the weekend pending a reply from RHA.This is the latest in a catalogue of events which has hit the unmetered ISP. Amongst the on-going connection problems experienced by many users, they have also been attacked by hackers who gained access to names, addresses, passwords and credit card details of 24,000 users. This is currently being investigated by the police. Yet despite their problems they still struggle on. Kent Trading Standards also looked into the company after receiving complaints from unhappy customers. Recently we reported on a user who was denied a refund because he used their service. Just how is he supposed to know if the service is ‘fit for the purpose’ and ‘of merchantable quality’ as stated under the Supply of Goods and Service Act 1982. Your comments are welcome as always. RedHotAnt responds to problems with Janet Here is the latest update: There is currently an issue connecting to the Janet Network as Janet are blocking all IP traffic originating from the RHA Network. Iomart launches 24/7 ADSL access Iomart, the company behind the free ISP Madasafish, has been one of the few successful ISPs trialing ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) along with BT. Iomart plans to quickly develop further ADSL based applications for the business market, including VoIP combined with the company's growing integrated web hosting services. iomart are particularly well placed in this regard having no legacy leased line revenue to worry about - a major advantage over traditional infrastructure based telcos. The Iomart ADSL service offers a permanent 24-hour Internet connection at a fixed monthly price without incurring usage based connection or call charges. The new Internet connection method enables standard analogue phone lines to simultaneously carry both data and voice message at speeds between 10 and 40 times faster than existing dial up modems. Iomart launches its ADSL offering following extensive trials with a number of its Madasafish members across the UK. Madasafish was one of only 11 ISPs taking part in the BT-run ADSL trials. The first iomart Group ADSL installations are expected to commence in August with a set-up fee from £150 and a monthly payment starting from £40. World Online in national advertising campaign Charged at a flat rate of £9.26 per month, it delivers free and unlimited Internet access on weekday evenings (after 6pm and before 8am) and all weekend. The monthly fee includes phone line rental, unlimited email addresses, personal webspace and savings against BT phone bills. The only differences between Freedom Lite and World Online’s existing package, Freedom 24, are the times of free access and the monthly fee. Freedom 24 offers free internet access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a monthly fee of £14.99. Laurence Alexander, MD of Consumer Services at World Online, said: "At World Online, we understand the importance of listening to our customers. So, when some subscribers said they wanted free evening and weekend internet access, we introduced Freedom Lite. Now people who only go online in the evenings and at weekends can save over £5 per month on the World Online service." To register for either Freedom Lite or Freedom 24, visit http://www.worldonline.co.uk or pick up a World Online registration CD from Shell Service stations and Tempo stores. Vispa provide details on unmetered packages Apart from the usual 0845 free access, they will also be providing an off-peak package as well as a 24/7 option. Both unmetered packages will be on a first-come basis with existing Vispa customers having priority. They are accepting pre-registrations now. All Vispa Connect accounts come with a few extras including 15MB webspace with support for FrontPage and has pre-installed CGI scripts, unlimited email addresses, full newsgroup access and dedicated games servers. ISDN is also supported up to 64K. Pricing for the new services have yet to be released, but Vispa say that they will be up and running within a few weeks. themutual float on AIM Investors who signed up to the free ISP received on average 1,000 free shares, although the first 10,000 users received 10,000 shares each. Some also won more in draws held by the ISP. However, investors who were hoping to make an instant profit were saddened. Although the shares started trading at 1.5p, they closed down on the day at .75p. The majority of users who have 1,000 shares now have a holding of just £7.50, and considering broker fees of around £15, they would end up out of pocket. It’s early days yet and they may well rise to a decent level within the next couple of years. |
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