The UK's "free"
Internet Service Providers earn their money from a cut of the 1 to 1.5p/min
telecom operator's charge for the local rate call. Most companies are
now also offering either off-peak access or unlimited access for a fixed
price.
Inspiron are a brand new ISP who are offering those who sign up free
pop3 email, email auto responders & redirects, webmail - access
your email at home or away,online support, 25MB webspace and a trial
of their online website builder (Instant Websites). In addition to the
usual Windows compatability they also support customers using Apple
/ Mac 9&X, Linux & VPN. Call charges depend on your phone company
but are typically around 4p/min daytime, 2p/min evenings & 1p/min
weekends.
Fox claim to be the UK's quickest dialup ISP with a contention ratio
of exactly 1. In other words even at peak times you are not sharing
access with anybody (unlike just about every other ISP).
Surf&Save is PowerGen's online service
that enables you to access all kinds of interestingWeb sites. Through
Surf&Save, every minute you spend , fun and useful online will also
reward you with discounts on PowerGen power bills! Every minute spent
online earns you Surf & Save Net Points which can then be redeemed
against your PowerGen domestic or business electricity or gas bills.
For every 10 minutes online you earn 1p towards your PowerGen energy
bills.
The ISP service consists of Free access, email & webspace. free
software for online gaming, Halifax ShareXpress online share dealing
service. Helpline costs are 50p /min.
Not only do UK4Free provide local rate
internet access they also have all 55,000 usenet newsgroups and their
own NetMeeting servers including one "guaranteed not to contain
offensive entries". Users also get unlimited email addresses and
5Mb of webspace.