Amazing AOL press release (19 February 1999) AOL Europe issued a press release today. About halfway down, it starts saying the most extraordinary things for an ISP, and I (Alastair) swear that neither the rest of the CUT committee nor I wrote it! A sample: 'We must overhaul the outdated telecomms pricing structure which sustains artificially high call rates for consumers', said Andreas Schmidt. 'The EU has an historic opportunity to build an information-based economy - one that will fuel job creation and provide consumers and businesses with an unprecedented array of new choices.' However, this will only happen if Europe takes action now to eliminate high local call prices and per minute charging for consumers. Think about what would happen to high street stores if they started charging customers for the time they actually spend browsing in their stores. Similarly, online customers are less willing to use the Internet and shop online as long as they continue to be charged by the minute. BT have responded, and we are in contact with AOL Europe.