Alta Vista hitting the big time today in the UK and Europe.
It must have got $100 million in free publicity today alone. From early morning until now (I have been driving for most of the day) it has been non-stop headline, analysis, phone in discussion, studio discussion and every conceivable kind of coverage.
It was 2nd or 3rd headline on all TV news shows, all the radio shows, every newspaper, some of them with multi-million readership, completely covered their front page with block headlines about AV.
The story is that AV will offer free telephone connections to the internet to AV subscribers. A start up fee of œ35 and then œ10 per year. AV will get money from advertisements (disconnection will occur if a user disables the ads, but you can connect again). It is calcualted to save existing users about œ700 million a year.
This puts enormous pressure on British Telecom which owns the last mile of the loop into most homes and businesses and charges conenbction charges of 5-10 pence per minute depending ont time of day etc. It also pressures AOL, which charges 1 p per minute and œ9.50 per month.
It heralds the beginning of free accesss because none of the competition wil be able to hold out. BT is making huge losses as it is because people are leaving for cheaper internet access. ( I used to pay about $1,000 a month, to BT, but have got it down by swithching to cheaper and partially free services to about $200 a month and with AV will get it down to virtually zero). Major changes in the UK economy, as a result. BT might claw back because people will stay connected all the time and will need adittional phone lines for regular calls.
It will also stimulate demand for PC's and other types of access. One cable company is offering free connections and a free TV/Web box.
It is huge news in Britain has the backing of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of Exchequer and is being commented about all over Europe.
I think I'll take my "Compaq" money and invest it in the "AV IPO"
Today UK government also hoping to raise between œ1 and œ1.5 billion auctioning airwave licences for new generation of mobile phones - with two way video and internet access.
Expected delivery in two years. |
