RE: UKNM: Free ISP business model

[Bunder, Leslie]

Methinks you'll find that people will have a couple of free ISPs on

their computers at home.  They will have one for regular day to day use

and another for backup.


Freeserve can position itself to be the "established" and best known

free ISP around (even though of course, it wasn't the first to offer

this model) and grow its own market by stressing how big it is.


I don't think we need to get hung up over the issue of default home

pages.  Once consumers realise they can change it, they will change it

to something of interest to them.  Most likely their home page or

favourite page in general, not the default ISP. (Anyway, I can talk, as

I still have AOL as the default at home and not my  www.bunder.com home

page!)


The other issue is that as consumers find their free ISP down or are

having issues with them, then customer service levels become important

and consumers will want to have some sort of guarantee of reliability

and reourse when things go wrong.


What can the free ISPs offer on this front?  That's why you will see

some interesting positioning from the paid-for services who will stress

service levels and issues of compensation when things go wrong.


Leslie

____________________________________________________

Leslie Bunder 

Project Manager,  TDL InfoSpace

e-mail:

Leslie [dot] Bunderinfospaceuk [dot] com

 (work) or

lesliebunder [dot] com

 (home)

Web:  www.infospace.co.uk

tel: 01252 390516 (UK)   +44 1252 390516 (outside UK)

mobile: 07010 701967 (UK)  or +44 7010 701967 (outside UK)

Thomson House, 296 Farnborough Road, Hants, GU14 7NU


>----------

>

From: Sanjay Mazumder[SMTP:sanjay-mazumdercredo-group [dot] com]

>Sent: 	15 June 1999 15:58

>

To: uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

>Subject: 	RE: UKNM: Free ISP business model

>

>The Freeserve phenomenon cannot last, simply because so many big name

>brands have got into the same game.  Each consumer will only take one

>'Free' ISP and since the likes of BT, WHSmiths, EB, Barclays, etc. etc.

>etc. have got into the game, they will all take some of the new

>customers, so Freeserve can never grow as quickly as it did originally.

>

>Also, the smart internet user is shifting away from Freeserve as their

>home page.  Everyone I know who uses Freeserve, has switched their home

>page to Yahoo, Excite or something else.

>

>Sanjay

>

sanjay-mazumdercredo-group [dot] com

>Tel.		+44 171 549 4949

>Fax		+44 171 549 4950

>Mob.	+44 7803 123 520

>http://www.credo-group.com

>

>> -----Original Message-----

>

> From: Edward Bownass [SMTP:edwardglobalgold [dot] co [dot] uk]

>> Sent:	15 June 1999 14:22

>

> To: uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

>> Subject:	UKNM: Free ISP business model

>> 

>> Dear all,

>> 

>> I just wanted to see what peoples views are on the free ISP model, and

>> how

>> it will change over the coming months/year.

>> 

>> My personal view is that many of the free ISP's will disappear, just

>> as many

>> of the fee paid ISP's disappeared 3 or 4 years ago. Secondly, I think

>> there

>> will be a big shift once we get affordable unmetered services. (eg.

>> �30 quid

>> a month or so). I know NTL are already implementing a �30 a month

>> always on

>> service using cable modems and it's also rumoured that BT are

>> releasing an

>> ADSL product after it's recent trial in London.

>> 

>> Do people think that freeserve will fall flat, or will it continue to

>> grow?

>> I've noticed recently that freeserve has been advertising extensively

>> in the

>> Midland's recently, on radio and buses particularly. One theory of

>> this is

>> that they've saturated their original marketing channel (i.e. throwing

>> CD's

>> at people in Dixons).

>> 

>> Yours,

>> ---

>> Edward Bownass - Technical Director

>> Global Gold Holdings Ltd.

>

> email: edwardglobalgold [dot] co [dot] uk

>> phone: 0121 321 1601

>> fax: 0870 164 0730

>> web: http://www.globalgold.co.uk/ 


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