European Telecommunications Boycott: Second Objective

London, 19 May 1999

For immediate release

Internet users in thirteen European countries are joining forces to
campaign for fairer telecommunications charges. The following countries
intend to take part in a European Telecommunications Boycott on Sunday 6
June: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy,
Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United
Kingdom.

Each Wednesday from 12 May to 2 June we in the Campaign for Unmetered
Telecommunications (CUT), the UK participating campaign, will further
explain one of the objectives of the Boycott.

The second objective is "Introduction of flat-rate charges for - in the
first instance - local calls, so that anyone can talk to friends and
relatives, and Internet users can dial up to Internet Service Providers
using a telephone modem, without worrying about the clock ticking and
charges ratcheting up."

Progress is finally being made, in the United Kingdom if not in other
participating countries, towards this objective with the launch of
screaming.net (the Tempo and LocalTel collaboration, giving unmetered
off-peak Internet access) and, if we take the rumours we have heard as
being true, forthcoming Internet Service Providers based on 0800
(freephone) numbers.

Such new and innovative tariffs are important developments, giving users
something of what they want, but we are concerned at the ad hoc nature
of these 'unmetered ISPs' and at the lack of choice; the numerous 'will
they take it away?' posts to our campaign mailing list are testament to
the cautious approach most people are taking. We campaign for such
unmetered tariffs to form part of the call packages offered by
telecommunications operators: that would make them feel more secure and
would give subscribers a choice of ISPs.

Anyway, unmetered off-peak Internet access is only a first step - what
about, for example, voice calls at any time, or Internet calls during
the day? Then there is the closely related issue of how modern Internet
access techniques will be charged for: that said, there remains much
life in the telephone modem as broadband services will probably be
expensive at first, will not be put in place overnight and may never
reach remote areas.

And what about national calls? In the days of electromechanical switches
there was a valid physical justification for separate local and national
tariffs; the further a call travelled geographically the more switches
it passed through, each of which was worn a tiny fraction more by being
used by that call. Now that there is an all-digital network, which BT
are rightly proud of, that physical justification is no longer relevant;
the focus of maintenance has shifted from (distance-dependent) hardware
to (distance-independent) software.

Note for Editors

Our original press release, announcing the European Telecommunications
Boycott, is at:

http://www.unmetered.org.uk/press/pr210499.txt

Contact Details

The united European campaigns' Web site:

http://www.telecom.eu.org/

UK contact:

Erol Ziya
Press Officer, Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications
press@unmetered.org.uk

http://www.unmetered.org.uk/

+44 171 681 2831