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Technology Stocks : America On-Line: will it survive ...? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: robert duke who wrote (11350)	9/30/1998 8:20:00 PM
From: Diamond Jim	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13594

22 September 1998 DIXONS LAUNCHES FREE INTERNET SERVICE FREESERVE COULD SAVE UK HOUSEHOLDS £165m A YEAR Speaking at a news conference at the Financial Times Building in London on 22 September to announce the launch of Freeserve, the UK's first fully featured free internet service, Dixons Group Chief Executive, John Clare, said: "Today Dixons Stores Group, the UK's largest electrical retailer, announces the launch of Freeserve - the UK's first fully featured internet service that is available FREE, with no registration or subscription fees and no hourly on-line charges. From tomorrow morning you can walk into Dixons, Currys, PC World or The Link, pick-up a free CD, load the software and you're ready to go with unlimited free internet use. All the Freeserve customer pays is their normal charge for a local rate telephone call. Freeserve offers: FREE unlimited internet access FREE registration and subscription FREE UK content including the latest news, sport, weather reports and other information supplied by the Press Association Full POP3 mailbox and unlimited FREE email addresses 5 MB of Web space - FREE The leading search engine, Lycos, and Scoot search facilities Nationwide local call rate access. "The Dixons Group has been looking very closely at the internet market for the last 18 months. Until now, it has not been possible to provide internet access to consumers without charging £10-15 a month. We felt that fell short of the kind of compelling customer offer Dixons is used to delivering. "With the launch of Freeserve, those days are over. "Freeserve users will not pay a penny for their internet access other than the call they make. Comparable services offering unlimited internet access typically charge around £12 a month in subscription fees. With the UK's consumer on-line population estimated to be around 5% (or 1.16 million) of UK households, signing up to Freeserve could save consumers over £165m a year. "There are thousands of households that would struggle to justify spending £12 a month in addition to phone charges to access the internet. With Freeserve, far more people will be encouraged to try out the internet, to access the rich information and services available on the world wide web - from education, news and current affairs, to entertainment, sports and on-line games. "[As you can see from the screen] Freeserve is not a 'Dixons' site but a generic 'portal' to the internet. The site has been designed to have everything the experienced internet user needs, including a selection of news, sport and entertainment content and advanced search facilities provided by Lycos. Equally important, for those new to the internet, we provide an extensive on-line guide that helps users to navigate their way around the world wide web. In the coming weeks and months, we will be adding new content and features to the site to ensure that it always stays fresh and exciting. "Freeserve is backed by the best names in the internet and information services business. Energis, one of the UK's largest national telecoms companies, and its recently acquired subsidiary, Planet Online, will supply the network and connectivity. Energis already carries more than 40% of the UK's internet traffic and Planet Online hosts more than 15,000 web sites including many of the most popular sites in the UK. The core content for the site is provided by the Press Association, leaders in the provision of up to the minute news and current affairs. "Freeserve is clearly a winning proposition for the consumer. For Dixons, it is a foothold in the on-line market. As a retailer, I know of no shops that charge an entry fee. By removing monthly subscription charges we believe that Freeserve will revolutionise the internet service market and drive up internet use. Although sales of consumer products over the internet are currently very small, with increased use of the internet we expect them to grow. As they do we expect to be a leader in that market as we are on the High Street.