One of the newest providers, LineOne, which is backed by British Telecom, United News Media and News International, has announced that it will scrap its monthly subscription fee. Some 6 million readers of the Express, the Sun and the Sunday Times will be given free compact discs containing software to surf the Internet. LineOne hope to compete with other free providers for a growing audience by the provision of unique on-line content, allowing readers to access many of the publications of the two media groups behind the company. This was among the first attempts to move away from monthly subscription charges with users instead paying an extra 1p per minute on top of their local telephone call charge for access. At one level, the development of free access to the Internet is to be welcomed.
Indications are that it has certainly led to a growth in home use of the medium.
There are, however, a number of drawbacks. Most free services have a number of technical limitations. The provision of free Internet access is not a philanthropic act on the part of these companies, but is motivated by a desire to exploit the commercial possibilities of the new medium. Notification of such modifications will be made by whatever means FreeOnline deems necessary. Users could therefore find themselves becoming an unwitting conduit for all kinds of advertising.