Starting a 'renaissance of land' (20 October 2000) Doubtless you will have heard that BT will be completely overhauling its tariffs, offering the option of unmetered local voice calls as well as bundling in unmetered Internet access through BT SurfTime ... all from 1 December 2000, subject to OFTEL approval. If you haven't, here's the press release from BT. Of course this is wonderful news. There were hints dropped at our last meeting with BT but, really, we are surprised at how fast the offer became available. Unmetered voice calls were inevitable, but we privately thought '12-18 months from now'. Crucially, calls to cable are included; Telewest and NTL have, in many locations, had unmetered off-peak local calls for years, but these offers were hampered by 'how do you know the phone on the other end is also a cable phone?' There are a few restrictions. Although 'unmetered for an hour' is a contradiction in terms we can live with it - just remember to put the phone down and redial - but there is one obvious problem; unmetered voice calls are confined to evenings and weekends. BT has become mesmerised by the notion that business users use the phone during the day and residential users use it during evenings and weekends. Broadly this is true, but it ignores the fact that those who need the phone most are at home during the day, namely the disabled, the elderly and the housebound. So, in our final submission to OFTEL's consultation on the Universal Service Obligation, we will be putting forward, among much else, three clauses thus: unmetered local voice calls, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a monthly subscription fee; unmetered data calls giving access to an Internet Service Provider, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a monthly subscription fee; a minimum guaranteed telephone modem speed of 28.8Kb/sec. and proposing changes to the terms of the USO itself, if needed, to accomodate these. If implemented these clauses would, finally, have unmetering written into legislation. There is no reason why BT cannot comply: quite apart from it learning to stop worrying and smash the meter it already offers a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week version of BT SurfTime - although, strangely, not through BT Internet - and, if BT doesn't do similar things with voice, someone else will and possibly drop the word 'local' as well. (Kingston Communications already meets the first two clauses, but with a 6½p charge per call, which our clauses would rule out). Why did BT reinvent the wheel? It's a long story, but there has been such tremendous hype surrounding wireless telecommunications the fact that the land line has been grotesquely underexploited - delays to ADSL and grudging unmetered Internet access come to mind - has been missed; we hope that BT's actions, and current corrections in stock markets, will lead to a 'renaissance of land'. Now there are many difficult questions for us to think about, such as 'what happens now with FRIACO?'.