Countdown to Unmetered (7 March 1999) When Dixons launched Freeserve late last year, they started a revolution with free internet service provision (you just pay for your phone calls and the helpline). AOL are now fighting back but not to cut the monthly charge. They are calling for low-cost local phone calls in the UK like in the USA. In the States some pay just £7 a month for unlimited local calls, which means the average AOL user in the States stays online for 55 minutes a day - whereas in Britain, where we pay on a minute-by-minute basis, the average AOL user stays online for just 16 minutes a day. The Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications is trying to get this campaign going big time. If you want your voice heard then contact them at www.unmetered.org.uk. Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton who became the father of the World Wide Web, said recently that having metered local telephone calls is like having a man with a red flag in front of the car. He wants unlimited calls for all and if Tim wants it, then that's good enough for me. Carol Vorderman, Daily Mirror, 4 March 1999. Just in case anyone's touchy... The photograph above has been digitally edited. No infringement of Channel 4's rights is intended.