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To: KBP who wrote (60096)	4/29/1999 3:11:00 PM
From: rupert1	Respond to of 97611

Eventually, the lower cost of telephone connections to the internet will cause an explosion in the UK and Europe. Here is another innovative incursion into the market. _____________________________________ The Register Posted 29/04/99 2:04pm by Linda Harrison Free phone calls for UK this summer Two schemes offering users free calls in exchange for listening to ads will start in the UK this summer. New phone company on the block, Freedom, looks set to pip BT to the post by offering the first nationwide system on 1 June. The scheme works by subjecting users to radio-like ads at the start of each call, then periodically bombarding them with other 10-second ads throughout their conversation. In the same month, BT will pilot its own service in the Tyne & Wear and Bristol areas. But this is not scheduled for the rest of the UK until later this summer. Freedom, a privately held phone company that Noel Edmonds has shares in, said its Free-to-Talk scheme could handle up to 2 million customers. The service will be offered in conjunction with fellow investors Energis and Siemens, according to today's Financial Times. BT has teamed up with Swedish company GratisTel, which developed the idea. Yesterday it predicted its BT Freetime would appeal to kids – letting them chat to friends without running up huge phone bills. Although the little darlings will, of course, be subject to all manner of commercials advising them how to spend their pocket money. In return for completing a ‘lifestyle questionnaire', users will receive a free number to dial and personal identity number to use before making BT Freetime calls. They can alternate between making normal paid or free calls, according to today's Daily Mail. GratisTel has already launched similar schemes in Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Norway and the US. Advertisers include McDonald's, CNN and Yahoo! No potential UK advertisers have yet been named.

To: KBP who wrote (60096)	4/29/1999 3:14:00 PM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

More "free access to the internet" battles in the UK> COMPAQ is becoming invovled offering some inducements with the new Pesario. _____________________ The Register Posted 29/04/99 4:12pm by Tim Richardson Freeserve users targeted by free call offer The UK could be about to become embroiled in bloody battle for ISP supremacy following the official launch today of screaming.net. The service -- a joint venture between rival electrical retailer, Tempo, and LocalTel, an independent Surrey-based service provider for BT -- is to compete directly with the phenomenally successful Dixons Freeserve. Pulling no punches, Michael Kraftman, Tempo deputy chairman, said he was gunning for existing Freeserve customers. And the offer of toll free dial-up access during evening and weekends could prove too much for users eager to cut the cost of Net access. If it lives up to the hype and delivers a quality service at a fraction of the price, it could lead to a mass desertion of Freeserve subscribers. "We think screaming.net will actually affect the psychology of Internet use in Britain," said Kraftman. "The whole psychology of getting onto the Net will change." Indeed it could, if the offer of free phone calls rings true, but for that to happen users will have to switch to LocalTel. Whether people are prepared to switch carriers -- even with the added incentive of 10 per cent discount on all telephone calls (except calls to mobiles) -- is another matter. But for one campaign group that is lobbying for the introduction of US-style unmetered telecomms charges, it is a start. "Tempo and LocalTel… have made a bold step which, for once, takes account of what telecommunications users in this country want," said Alastair Scott, of the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT). "At last, for some of the time, the ticking of the clock and the ratcheting up of the bill will no longer be an issue; screaming.net tackles the principal barrier to Internet access in this country, which is open-ended telecommunications charges." ®

To: KBP who wrote (60096)	4/29/1999 3:18:00 PM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

You heard it hear first! _____________________________ Posted 29/04/99 1:35pm by Mike Magee NEC claims breathrough on quantum computer Japanese company NEC, together with other researchers, claimed today they have made a breakthrough on the supercomputing front. According to NEC, the consortium has developed the fundamental building block for a future quantum computer by controlling the superposition of quantum states in a solid state electron device. The quantum states are used to represent data as a quantum bit or qubit, with similar characteristics to the binaries used by current machines. And NEC claims that when a machine is built using the breakthrough, it will allow computation to be thousands or millions of times more powerful than current supercomputers. NEC boffins made the solid state qubit by creating a so-called Cooper pair box by connecting a super conducting electrode some billionths of a meter with a reservoir of electrons using a Josephson Junction2. Quantum superposition states allowed the wave-like quanta to tunnel through the junction. In the device, two quantum states with a different number of electrons are coupled into superposition. ®