AOL UK is claiming to be the tortoise beating the hare in
finally rolling out unmetered internet access in the UK for a
flat-rate monthly fee of £14.99. The company is offering the
service first to its long-standing customers and then gradually
extending its offer to others to avoid the problems of meeting
demand that harmed some other ISPs.
Other ISPs suffered overwhelming demand for unmetered services
when these were offered before the ISPs had secured flat rate deals
with BT for access to the local loop, meaning that the ISPs, by
paying per-minute charges to BT, made losses on customers who spent
long periods on-line. Alta Vista admitted last month that it had
never launched its promised unmetered service and blamed BT for its
failure to do so.
In May, the UK regulator, Oftel, forced BT to begin offering a
wholesale flat-rate tariff to its telecoms competitors, known as
Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO). The regulator
mandated that BT should offer this flat-rate tariff after reviewing
a formal complaint from the telecoms operator MCI Worldcom last
December. FRIACO-based, flat-rate internet access tariffs are only
now being made available to ISPs. Prior to FRIACO being made
available, CallNet, LineOne and Virgin.Net withdrew or delayed
their unmetered packages.
