It retains loyalty through unique services. Little Hat also attracts trade from schools as far away as Holland. If somebody wants to e-mail me or phone me up personally, I will chat with them. People don't mind paying 10 a month for that. In Banchory, Calico UK's Kirsty Pryer is equally sanguine.
People are prepared to pay a penny a minute to have a Scottish e-mail and web address.
Kelso-based Calligrafix operates Scottish Borders Internet as a combined ISP and area business portal in tandem with its core web design business, charging 15 a month. Nor does Aydin Kurt-Elli, managing director of edNET in Leith, foresee a client exodus. While Ford agrees that NTL's move was a matter of opportunistic timing, his scepticism about Alta Vista goes further. AltaVista's popularity as a search engine has fallen behind and we were aware last year that Compaq wanted to float it to get value back. The UK market is interesting to the Americans because they have seen Freeserve build itself up.