Alta Vista free phonecalls ?

[2 six 4]

Heard on the radio today that Alta Vista were going to provide free phone calls as well as free ISP.

Anyone know any details ?

[spannersatcx]

Expected to be available within 3 months, will be limited to 500,000 users and one off fee of £30. Sounds familiar.

[Stan Sted]

ITN midday news said AV will offer free calls to internet in return for a signing on fee of around £30 to £50 and an annual charge of £10. Sounds too good to be true!

ITN says limited to half a million initially. Where do I sign up?

cheers SS

[MAX REVERSE]

Check the Altavista UK (http://www.altavista.co.uk) site. There's a clickable link in the right sidebar about this.

<Quote>

AltaVista, the world's favourite search engine, today announced its intention to offer customers a free monthly Internet access and free unmetered phone calls, all for one upfront charge. The service will be launched within the next three months and is estimated to save British web users nearly £700 million a year¹.

AltaVista is providing a simple structure to Internet charges, which will ensure that consumers do not face hidden extra costs once they commit to a service. Through research conducted for AltaVista by Datamonitor, to go online for 'free' with Btclick.com or Freeserve will actually cost the consumer £126² per year in local call rates. With AOL the cost goes up to £198³ per year. It is these phone-call costs which, according to Durlacher analysts, is preventing more people going online.

Andy Mitchell, managing director of AltaVista UK commented, "The UK is still lagging behind the US when it comes to exploiting the Internet, and this is mainly caused by the high phone charges imposed by the likes of BT. By announcing free monthly access and free calls, AltaVista is hoping to increase the number of people online and the number of Internet-related jobs, which in turn will boost the British economy and place us in a competitive position with the United States."

The system is currently undergoing robust testing to ensure that it is completely stable. Following a number of questionable launches by competitors of other 'free' services, AltaVista will manage the roll-out of its service, to ensure that the customer's satisfaction with the service remains paramount.

Nick Gibson, senior Internet analyst, Durlacher, said "High telecommunication charges and per minute billing have been holding back the development of the Internet and e-commerce in Britain. Unmetered Internet access could treble the time UK users currently spend online, giving the UK net economy a massive boost."

¹This figure is a calculation of number of hours spent by home users on the Internet per year multiplied by the BT local off-peak call rate (source: Datamonitor/IDC)
²This figure is a calculation of average number of hours spent by a Freeserve home user on the Internet per year multiplied by the BT local off-peak call rate (source: Datamonitor/IDC)

³ AOL charges £9.99 per month and a 1p a minute call rate

<End quote>

While you're waiting for this to materialise, you might be interested to know that BTinternet (http://www.btinternet.co.uk) are offering unlimited 0800 access evenings and weekends for a tenner a month. You might want to check the "Pathetic BT Internet" thread on this forum first!

[This message has been edited by MAX REVERSE (edited 07 March 2000).]

[2 six 4]

Thanks max. It will come as no surprise that you cannot get into the Alta Vista site just now. No wonder they say they will limit the first offer.

A British company Phones 4U were quoted in the morning papers as saying they will be ahead of Alta and launch a totally free service from March 15th. They will not have a limit on the numbers and expect to sign up "millions" in the first month.

Which ever way it looks as if call charges may be on the way out - at long last.

[MAX REVERSE]

There's also some articles about this on MSN UK (http://www.msn.co.uk/page/4.asp)

[Doors to Automatic]

Cable operator NTL has also announced free access today available from April