Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications
 
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    Many people refer to free Internet access, largely because this is an expression often used by the media and even telecommunications providers in their promotions. However, we suggest that you become more precise and refer instead to unmetered Internet access. There are three main objections to 'free':

    1. 'Free' access is not free. Although there may be no subscription fee you pay indirectly for such access, usually by telephone calls charged by the minute.

    2. Using 'free' encourages trivial responses such as 'you can't get something for nothing' or 'there's no such thing as a free lunch'. Using 'unmetered' emphasises that you pay a single subscription fee for access, say every month, and there is no per-minute call cost.

    3. 'Free' is much abused. For example, Freeserve has nothing to do with 'free' because, although it levies no subscription fee, you're still paying by the minute to access its services.
    It's the same argument for unmetered voice calls. 'Unmetered' implies you pay a single subscription fee for the service ... and that's all you pay.

    There's no question of 'something for nothing': we demand fair , not free, charges.

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