Unmetered here and there (24 August 1999) Greatxscape is making a very similar offer to screaming.net. It takes advantage of the BT Calls and Access scheme so that, if you sign your BT phone line over to a BT reseller, Telnet Residential, and endure some form-filling and delays, you get unmetered Internet access at evenings and weekends plus discounts on BT rates provided you spend £30pcm or more on voice calls and peak-time data calls. Those behind Greatxscape have had almost four months to observe the problems screaming.net has experienced (and which finally appear to be being resolved), and they have evidently learned from what they saw. We are impressed by the presentation of the Internet service which, from the start, includes a news server and its own private Web space, and has a FAQ which answers almost all the involved questions we were asked when screaming.net opened for business! The usability of the service is another matter; we shall see. We spoke to Greatxscape; on the first day (actually just over half a day as the site opened in the morning of 20 August) they had two hundred and fifty people sign over their BT lines and their site had a quarter of a million hits. Obviously the offer - a single number unmetered for data calls only - is a step on the way to what we campaign for, so our reservations concerning screaming.net remain in force. Another issue we have reported on before (October 1998, November 1998 and February 1999) is unmetered telephony in the Irish Republic: this has 'been happening' for the best part of a year. Finally, the impasse is broken and Esat, a small operator there, has announced Surf NoLimits, whose name is self-explanatory. HackWatch has some worthwhile commentary on the Irish situation.