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FREE (?) ISPs
by Brian Grainger: 
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Last time, Alan Crease gave us his thoughts on the rash of ISPs springing up offering a so-called free service. I shared his scepticism regarding the meaning of free. However, I wanted to make sure I did not miss out on a good deal so I have been trying to sort out just what the various services being touted are offering. It is not easy trying to work out how much free really costs! On top of that other factors have to be taken into account. A service that is free, provided you make £10 a month of voice calls, may be free for a lot of people but to someone like me, who finds it expensive to talk, it is useless. I have to say I find BT's foray into the market, Surftime, totally confusing. I have hated BT, and its talent for hiding the truth, for some years but while they have the monopoly on the local loop we cannot avoid them. I have seen various monthly prices quoted for Surftime from £5.99 to £30. Obviously whether it is just free off-peak or at all times is a factor. I can only assume whether you use it via BT's ISP or another one is also a factor. Another factor is whether you are a business user or not. Quite why a business user has to pay me I am not sure, unless it allows for many concurrent users at a time. The thing that I find really amusing is that at the time of writing Alta Vista, who started this whole thing off, has still not started their service! One factor that cannot be ascertained yet is how good a service will you get. It is no good having a free service if you cannot get online when you want to. All I know, so far, is that my friend has no problems with the NTL service. He does have to send out his e-mails through their service, although he can receive from any of his e-mail addresses. Anyway, enough of the background information. The following table summarises the information I have found on free(?) services. It seems to me that Callnet and X-Stream are the only true free services. Callnet expect to make money on the voice calls you make, but they do not force a minimum amount. The catch with X-Stream is you have a permanent ad window! |
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Operator |
Set-Up Cost |
Monthly Fee |
Annual Fee |
Cut-Off Period |
Min.Monthly Call Spends |
Hardware Reqmnt |
What You Get |
For Details See |
For Details Ring |
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Telewest Surfunlimited |
£9.99 |
£10.00 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£10.00 |
Telewest phone line |
Free access |
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NTL (non cable customer) |
£25.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
2 hours |
£10.00 |
Adaptor box (£10) |
Free access |
www.ntl.co.uk |
0800 0524705 |
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BT Internet |
£0.00 |
£9.99 |
£109.00 |
N/A |
N/A |
BT phone line |
Free access 18.00-24.00 Mon-Thur 18.00 Fri - 24.00 Sun Local call rate at other times |
www.btinternet.com |
0800 800 001 |
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BT Surftime Off Peak |
£0.00 |
£15.25 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£0.00 |
Any ISP |
Free access off peak |
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BT Surftime Unlimited |
£0.00 |
£29.95 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£0.00 |
Any ISP |
Free access |
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PlusNet 500 + Surftime |
£0.00 |
£11.98 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
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Free off peak access. 1p per minute other times |
www.plus.net |
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Alta Vista |
£40.00 |
£0.00 |
£10.00 |
5 mins |
£0.00 |
Any phone line |
Free access |
www.altavista.co.uk |
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Excite |
£50.00 |
£0.00 |
£20.00 |
|
£0.00 |
Any phone line |
Free access |
www.excite.co.uk |
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Clara Net |
£0.00 |
£49.99 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£0.00 |
BT phone line |
Free access |
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LineOne |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£5.00 |
Adaptor box (£20) |
Free access |
www.lineone.net |
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X-Stream |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£0.00 |
Any phone line |
Free access |
www.x-stream.co.uk/web.html |
0800 358 5678 |
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Breathe |
£50.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
Any phone line |
Free access |
www.breathe.net |
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Freeserve Unlimited |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£10.00 |
Any phone line |
Free access |
www.freeserve.net |
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Freeserve Off Peak |
£0.00 |
£6.99 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£0.00 |
Any phone line |
Free off peak access |
www.freeserve.net |
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Freeserve Surftime |
£0.00 |
£5.99 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£0.00 |
BT phone line |
Free off peak access. |
www.freeserve.com/time |
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Phones4U (Is this Callnet?) |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
Adaptor (£19.99 but £20 free tel. Calls). BT or LocalTel phone line. |
Free access.Normal phone calls at 30% discount on BT standard rates. Need credit/debit card |
www.4unet.co.uk |
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Callnet |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
Adaptor (£19.99 but £20 free tel. Calls). BT or LocalTel phone line. |
Free access.Normal phone calls at 30% discount on BT standard rates. Need credit/debit card |
www.f1racing.co.uk |
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AOL |
£0.00 |
£9.99 |
£0.00 |
N/A |
£0.00 |
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1p / min |
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OneTel Net |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
Any phone line |
1p / min |
www.onetel.net.uk |
0800 634 1828 |
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IC24 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
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Free between 09.00 and 17.00 on Sat and Sun |
www.ic24.net |
0870 909 0925 |
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World On-line |
£20.00 |
£14.99 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
Changes BT to World OL |
Free access |
www.worldonline.co.uk/freedom24/index.html |
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Liberty Surf |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£20.00 |
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£0.00 |
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Free off peak access. 1p per minute other times |
Disk from Comet |
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Liberty Surf |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£55.00 |
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£0.00 |
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Free access |
Disk from Comet |
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Tiny off peak |
£0.00 |
£6.99 |
£0.00 |
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£10.00 |
Cable and wireless |
Free off peak access |
www.tiny.co.uk |
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Tiny Unlimited |
£0.00 |
£25.99 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
Cable and wireless |
Free access |
www.tiny.co.uk |
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Virgin |
£0.00 |
£15.00 |
£0.00 |
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£0.00 |
Any phone line |
Free access |
www.virgin.net |
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