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To: roncole who wrote (22321)	7/25/1999 5:19:00 PM
From: jwk	Respond to of 40688

not b2b, but still interesting...UK looks to be priming the pump for for e-commerce. Wonder what they think might be cookin'? Friday, July 23, 1999 Published at 18:35 GMT 19:35 UK Business: The Company File Internet war hots up Freedom's service will be paid for by focused advertising Another player has entered the totally free Internet access arena as the competition for the e-commerce market hots up. Freedom Telecom, which already offers advertising-funded free telephone calls to UK customers, is to give subscribers to its Internet access service 60 minutes charge-free online time a day. The free access service will be funded by focused advertising, tailored to suit the lifestyle of individual users. Internet service providers are increasingly offering incentives to gain subscribers as the financial potential of e-commerce becomes clearer. Raising the stakes Electrical retailer Dixon won a huge slice of the market by being the first major operator to offer free access, and has been followed by several others. Earlier this year, rival electrics firm Tempo raised the stakes by offering the UK's first call-charge-free service. Tiny Computers entered the fray by offering free computers to its subscribers earlier this month. With research showing some 10m UK adults using the Internet, and a forecast that this will rise to 18m by 2003, the potential market is huge. Freedom Telecom managing director Joshua Sayles said he expected 1m subsribers to Freedom-I (www.freedomi.com) in the first six months of operation. Joint venture He said: "We can push the value of (of advertising) upwards from the commodity rates you get for radio to the sort of rates you get for direct marketing. "Once you do that, you can easily afford to sustain a free service, be it voice or data." The venture will initially be capitalised at £5m ($7.92m), with funding from partners including telecoms firm Energis and industrial group Siemens. Mr Sayles said Freedom was entering a joint venture with the UK's third largest cable company, NTL, to provide some of the service's e-commerce requirement, including call centres. He also said the service would address potential security concerns by allowing subscribers to buy over the Internet without disclosing credit card details. The system, called I-Pay, would let subscribers pay through a telephone account separate from the credit card account. Freedom's free telephone call service, Free2Talk, already has 25,000 subscribers. A 30-second advertisement "break" begins every five minutes of talk time - funding the service. ============================== along with.... Friday, July 16, 1999 Published at 08:43 GMT 09:43 UK Business: The Company File Free PC offer for telecoms customers A Internet-driven PC price war could be on the way Customers are being offered free personal computers if they sign up for a telecommunications package. In the first deal of its kind in the UK, Tiny Computers is offering to give a PC to anyone signing a one-year contract with the new telecoms company Tiny Telecom, provided they agree to make a minimum of £25 calls a month. The deal mirrors moves in the US which have seen PC prices slashed. On Thursday, Microsoft announced it was offering free PCs to US customers who signed up for three years of its Internet service. Analysts believe the move by Tiny could trigger a similar round of offers in the UK. Several options Calls through Tiny Telecom will be routed via the Cable and Wireless network and charged at standard rates. They can be either voice calls or PC-based calls to Tiny's free subscription Internet service. Tiny, which sold 256,000 PCs in the UK last year and has 107 high street stores, is aiming the offer mainly at consumers looking for PCs as a way on to the Internet. According to reports in a range of UK newspapers Tiny's customers will be offered the option of a free PC, although it will not include a screen and will have to be plugged into the television set. A higher specification PC, with monitor, would be available for an additional £7.89 a month over four years. The Surrey-based firm says it is the fourth largest PC brand in the UK, with 6% of the PC market.