Re: UKNM: The 'free' in free ISP now a commodity

[Rick Sareen]

At 11:10 am +0000 15/6/99, Sam Michel wrote:


>So, surely any company who is taking customer retention, loyalty, and

>direct/database marketing seriously should be creating their own ISP?

>

>...or will the whole business model just disappear to the realms of big

>telcos...the early entrants aside? Is there any space left in the free ISP

>space for the new kids on the block? Aren't they wasting their time?


You'd have thought so, but as is looking increasingly likely, if we get

unmetered xDSL for , oooh  say �40 pm from Q4 '99, then the telco connect

charge income will disappear for these folks and they will only have ad

revenue to keep them afloat.


Now as my partner Nick says (far too often), money follows audience. So I

am beginning to think that Freeserve have spotted this and subscriber base

is now the critical factor for them and thus the advertising to build

customers. Notice the vertical markets they are attacking: they are going

for depth and breadth. I predict (no dinner, sorry) that there will be a

shake out in the market when this happens , starting with the 0800 offers

(which are just a clever form of cross subsidy against the peak time

users).


But then, why are BT making 0800 services available??  Any conspiracy

theorists got any ideas?


--

Rick Sareen

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