Just as companies such as America Online (UK) are pondering supplying subscribers with toll-free dial-up internet access, cable operator Cable & Wireless Communications Plc has branded the notion unworkable. In a press conference for the launch of a subscription-free internet service provider, Lance Spencer, CWC’s MD for IP strategy, said he was not convinced of the viability of 0800-prefix toll-free web access. AOL is currently piloting a scheme where subscribers pay a monthly flat fee for unlimited toll-free dial-up, in response to the 70-plus subscription-free services that have arisen in the UK, but is still hesitant to roll the service out commercially.
Meanwhile, the subscription-free model continues to thrive, with two companies launching copycat services yesterday. Student-world.co.uk sent out 100,000 registration CDs to A-level students in a bid to get visitors to its student-oriented (complete with Star Wars style intro) portal to plough dial-up revenue into its company. Angels.org.uk is a joint venture between Internet Protocols Ltd and VAS-NET Ltd, which promises to give a slice of its call revenues to charities, in much the same way as Voss Net Plc announced two months ago with its charityfree.com service. The managing director of VAS-NET, Gordon Fielden, rather ambitiously suggested the charity gimmick could call into question the $2.5bn valuation attributed to Freeserve.
