Re: UKNM: freeserve numbers - comments anyone?

[Deborah Loth]

>It just goes to show what a barrier the issue of cost has been to the

>development of the consumer market in the UK. But I dispute the 10% figure

>- that looks like home users only. Still, it's an amazing achievement -

>especially when you consider AOL hit 500,000 only the other day, and after

>about 2 years of plugging away.

>

>The great thing is that apart from attracting some people from other ISPs,

>Freeserve actually appears to be expanding the market.

>

>An interesting model is the free-to-use, entirely ad-supported ISP. check

>out http://www.netzero.com in the States.


How many 'free' ISPs can the UK support? Or, if 'free' consumer ISPs become

the norm, how many pay-for ISPs will find a way to continue? There's

already Free-Online (http://www.free-online.net/), less heavily hyped, but

offering free Internet Access accounts on almost exactly the same model as

Freeserve. It's my impression, though, that the model is

telepone-charge-supported, not ad-supported.


D.

--------------------------

Deborah Loth

deborah@oddjob.demon.co.uk

mob +44 (410) 352 896

tel +44 (171) 439 4399

fax +44 (171) 437 8505

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