Trying hard in impossible circumstances (23 February 1999) ClaraNET have launched a package, ClaraCall, aimed at BT subscribers. You dial in to ClaraNET via a special number which results in call costs being deducted by them from your credit card. The costs, per minute, are 0.6/0.9/2.8 pence per minute weekend/evening/day; these are cheaper than BT's tariffs even with discounts - and avoid the considerable hassle of claiming these discounts - but are not necessarily cheaper than those of cable operators. For example, NTL offer 0.5/0.8/2.8 pence per minute between their subscribers and their own ISP. ClaraCall is nowhere near unmetered access, but that's not ClaraNET's fault. What the package offers throws into stark relief a problem with the way interactions between telecommunications operators are modelled in this country. And the modelling is down to OFTEL. The root of the model is interconnect charges between telecommunications operators; in ClaraCall's case, the local operator is BT and the trunk operator COLT, with the interconnect charge being shared between them (70% to COLT, 30% to BT). Because these charges are metered, that metering has to be passed all the way through to users. So, at the moment, it is extremely difficult to develop an unmetered solution using national or local-type (0345, 0645 and 0845) calls. True local calls (in London, 0171, 0181 and the surrounding areas) are another matter; they can be maintained with a given operator's network, so the issues about interconnect charging are largely irrelevant. And the marginal cost of providing such calls is, in effect, zero. (You may ask why NTL are charging at least 0.5 pence per minute for a call within their network. Good question; ask them!) We're currently working on the outline of an alternative to the current interconnect model, and will make this the focus of our campaigning in the next few months. 'Free' ISPs are nothing more than an accounting trick based on this faulty interconnect model.