Customers of Telnet Ltd’s free off-peak dialup internet access service, GreatXscape, have apparently jumped ship in droves this week, after the company inadvertently informed customers it was to cap their online time. GreatXscape, which offers free unlimited dialup at evenings and weekends to customers of Telnet’s voice telephony service, informed existing subscribers by email this weekend that their free time would be limited to 20 hours per month.
The Manchester, UK-based company later corrected its statement, saying the capping will only apply to new customers. But the correction came too late, and many customers had already canceled their accounts. Telnet said it was limiting the free time allowed in order to keep up availability and to allow subscriber growth. This seems to have backfired.
Telnet refused to comment before press time, but a statement issued by operations manager Adrian Hughes said: The reason that new customers are being restricted on their usage is due to a minority of existing users hogging the lines during off peak periods, i.e. connecting at 6pm until 8am the following morning during the week, and incredibly, connecting 6pm Friday until 8am Monday morning! As restricting the access of new users would not seem to correct this minority problem, suspicions among net users have increased that Telnet intended to limit every user’s access, and changed its mind due to adverse public reaction.
