Internet service provider Telinco Plc prepared the ground on Friday for its own toll-free dialup service by criticizing its rivals Freeserve Plc and AOL UK for presenting confusing unmetered access offerings. It says its own service (which is expected to launch in a few weeks) will offer unmetered dialup via a toll-free 0800-prefix number, 24 hours a day. It says there will be no contractual obligations involved in signup, and subscribers will not have to use a specific phone company to earn minutes. The service will involve proprietary software which is likely to involve advertising delivered direct to users’ desktops, and will be offered under the Telinco brand but will also be made available for resale by branding partners.
In addition, Telinco said that it will not involve the end user changing phone company to benefit from the free calls. It is often the case that new call tariffs… work out more expensive than normal discount rates, the firm said in a thinly-veiled attack on the likes of Freeserve. The market-leading ISP earlier this week revealed it would give free dialup hours in exchange for customers using Energis Plc, its infrastructure partner, for regular telephony.
Also, the service will not be a service where the company recoups the cost of paying for the dialup call by charging large subscription fees while hoping that light users will subsidize the heavier users. This is a model only recently offered by some small players, and was being piloted by AOL UK and AOL Europe.
