London-based free internet service provider, X-Stream Network, is offering its 200,000 subscribers the chance to surf the net for nothing. To mark the company’s first year anniversary, on March 8 from 6pm to midnight, surfers will be able to access the subscription-free service via a toll-free 0800 number instead of using the usual local-rate connection.
But there is more to this than just saying thanks to our customers, says managing director, Paul Myers: We want to draw people’s attention to the fact that we were the first company to offer free internet access, he explained, adding that the company also wants to highlight the fact that we don’t rely on call-charge revenues like FreeServe [provided by UK electronic retailer, Dixons] and ClickFree [provided by British Telecommunictions] do.
Though, like most ISPs who offer free access in Britain, X-Stream also makes some revenue from call charges, but Myers insists that advertising revenues are what matter and this promotion is designed to show that. Myers thinks that pretty soon the telco carriers will take a greater percentage of the line charge and this will mean that most free ISPs will vanish. But as the third largest free ISP in the UK, Myers believes his company won’t be one of those to disappear. In a provocative statement Myers said: BT and the other large telcos basically have Oftel in their pockets, but we want to send a message to them saying we were the pioneers of free internet and we can take this thing to a new level.
