FRIACO kicks off after long delays (21 September 2000) As you will doubtless have noticed, AOL UK has announced subscription unmetered Internet access, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, first for its existing customers and then to all. The subscription fee is £14.99pcm. We believe that the service can be used with any telecommunications operator's phone lines - not just those of BT and Kingston Communications - and that the connection is not cut off after any period. We are very pleased by this announcement: we have worked with AOL UK for over a year and have been impressed by its cautious and serious approach - it has said over and over again to us that it will not release services to its subscribers until they are tested and proven. We know that the Internet connectivity to be used by the service will be partly based on FRIACO: as well as expressing confidence in FRIACO, AOL UK has put its neck on the block. Problems with modem congestion at its end when it moved to subscription unmetered services, in the USA, in 1996-7 are still used against AOL and, if there are similar problems here, the media will run riot. Furthermore: AOL UK has rather stolen a march on all other Internet Service Providers: it is probably not until the end of November that FRIACO becomes available to all telephone exchanges. As there is no mention of geographical restrictions we presume that AOL UK will be picking up the excess - if not covered by the subscription fee - for BT subscribers signing up to the service who cannot benefit from FRIACO, either because their exchange does not support FRIACO at all or because AOL UK's telecommunications partners do not have the appropriate connections to the exchange even though it is enabled for FRIACO. Such subscribers will be using Internet connectivity which is metered. Unless separate agreements have been made with cable companies AOL UK will be in a similar position with their subscribers. We will be meeting AOL UK soon to find out the fine detail of the offer and expect the floodgates to open on FRIACO, benefitting all Internet Service Providers who wish to use it; already Ecossetel has announced a FRIACO-based offer.