Andrew Guard wrote:
>
> Well, well Alan Day, OK then but...
> >
> > --
> > AOL UK has put it`s weight behind the upcoming UK & European CyberStrike
> > on Sunday 6th June.
> > AOL UK has e-mailed all 600,000 of its members.
> >
> > http://www.theregister.co.uk
>
> I can not work out why AOL are so for this to work. May be because
> they see it would heart FreeServe and all rest free ISP hard.
Well I do not think it is to hurt Freeserve. Admittedly the "free"
(should be "pay as you go") ISP are hurting the traditional subscription
based ISP such as AOL , Wirenet & Demon. But there is no reason why
they cannot
go free.
But think about it..... unmetered calls are coming (LocalTel offers
off-peak unmetered, BTInternet offers 0800 access at the weekend so long
as you subscribe to the �11.95/month, NTL has started to roll out cable
modems and offer unmetered access for �40/month). Once unmetered calls
arrive then the "free" ISP model does not work (because they make money
from the high per minute charges) and will have to return to the
subscription based model.... hence AOL support.
BT has 84% market share. If you are a C&W or other cable customer and
you phone someone then there is an 84% chance that it is a BT customer.
Now BT charges an interconnect fee to the cable company. In the US,
Canada, Oz & NZ ect this is usually a fixed sum ie 5 cents. BT charges
the interconnect fee "per minute" and only sells bandwidth "per minute"
whereas in US etc bandwidth can be bought in bulk for a fixed fee. All
this "per minute" charges filters down to all customers whether BT or
Cable or whatever since Bt has 84% market share.
Just look at the mobile phone market where there is aggressive
competition and you will see unmetered options for �50/month and offers
of 25hours free and yet they have considerably less bandwidth compared
to landlines.
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Alan Day - Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, UK
Team AMIGA ICQ uin 23996342
A member of CUT - Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications
( in the UK ) please register your support for UNMETERED calls at
http://www.unmetered.org.uk
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