Millennium Statement (22 December 1999) When CUT started campaigning in earnest in the middle of 1998 attitudes seemed so entrenched I thought it would take two years before anything at all would happen. I write this less than a year and a half later with BT having proposed unmetered Internet access. By any standards this is extraordinary; it is even more remarkable when you consider that BT still has eighty percent plus of the UK residential telecommunications market and, unlike the only other country where the principal operator has moved from universal metered to unmetered tariffs (Austria), has little current competition from cable companies or anyone else. BT has been forced to do the unthinkable - and until a few days before the 7 December announcement it was still saying to us that unmetering was technically and financially impossible - as a result of what the Wall Street Journal called 'whipping up a storm'. People on all sides, from Government down, read our case, believed it, joined in the push and, remarkably quickly, built up overwhelming pressure for change. Many people, including myself, have wondered what effect we really have. I always used to say 'we will never know but, whatever it is, it is not zero' but can now be a little less modest. Over the past few weeks many people and organisations have told us that the whole issue of fair charging for Internet access would not be nearly as advanced as it is without CUT. That we are the only organisation outside the telecommunications and Internet industries to take part in the OFTEL Internet Forum is, I believe, eloquent in itself. And, at a more abstract level, we have defined how the issue is described. How often do you see 'free Internet access' referred to now? It's 'unmetered' all the way. So, on behalf of the Committee, I thank everyone who has helped us in ways big and small and wish you a happy and prosperous New Year. Come the beginning of January we pick up from where we leave off now. We are not finished: the BT offer is not in place, seems far from perfect and, as we said earlier, turbulent times are ahead. Alastair Scott Moderator, Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications