Australia’s pubs and clubs are to welcome a new visitor – coin-op Internet. At a cost of roughly $3 for 10 minutes it will join the more traditional pool tables and poker machines that line the walls. The terminals are the creation of Sydney-based Internet Public Access Terminals Pty Ltd, which has gained a powerful ally in the form of OzEmail, the local service provider which has just raised $43.3m in flotation on the US Nasdaq stock-trading system. OzEmail plans to install 3,500 of the term inals across the country in the coming year. The scheme is counting on users shelling out significantly more than the $5 hourly rate that home computer users are accustomed to doing. Internet Public Access managing director Daniel Albert told the Australian Financial Review he thought $4.70 was a fair price to expect from customers. While that may seem expensive, the amusement machines like Daytona will easily chew $47.25 an hour, and if you’re playing pool for an hour you’re very close to th at $15.75, he said. Operators are likely to pay $9,450 for one of the terminals and pocket all the proceeds, or Internet Public Access could install it and pay them up to 30% of the proceeds for their space. Either way, Albert believes he is on to a winner. People want information and they are willing to pay to get it, Albert said.
