The fall of the FREE ISP
  08/05/2001 9:56:13 PM MDT Albuquerque, Nm
  By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO

Say goodbye to FREE ISP's, they're dead.   Many others had predicted the same thing, there isn't money in a FREE ISP, and therefore they cannot survive as a viable business model. The law of economics in it's truest form prevails.

  Free ISP's thought otherwise, with retail giants like KMart stepping into the market with their service BlueLight.com. Smaller companies fell first. 1stUp.com and Spinway.com, which was funded by Japanese Internet conglomerate Softbank, went under in late 2000. FreeWWWeb also fell early on. Now only a few are left.

  FreeServe, the UK's largest free ISP threatened the UK Government last week that they would pack their bags unless they were charged the same taxes as AOL is. All Free ISP's pulled back their shiny "Unlimited Access" promises which weren't ever realized with new limited hourly plans.

  In the "stock bubble that burst" technology era, the FREE ISP's cheated wall street with their promises of big payouts for shareholders only to answer with big IPO's and nothing to show afterwards. Netzero, recently announced a merger with Juno's FREE ISP division, which is really a paid for ISP in disguise.

  It seems now even the FREE ISP's realize it doesn't pay them to be free. Netzero just lowered it's already lowered hourly limit from 40 hours a month to 10. It is only obvious now that the NetZero brand is just that for shareholders - Zero return on their Net investment.

  The proposed new name of the new ISP created by the NetZero and Juno merger is United Online, which would be the US's second largest ISP. Even this idea of marketshare hasn't impressed investors and both companies have paid for their "mottos" on Wall Street.

  KMarts BlueLight.com free ISP will be phased out by August 29th, 2001 and replaced with an $8.95/mo paid service. FreeServe of the UK is having trouble competing directly with AOL which offers a free trial, but then pay as you go. 1stup and Spinway weren't the first downed or the first spin thrown on a non-profitable business model, but they're certainly dead.

  The fall of the FREE ISP's are imminent. Get a paid for ISP offering unlimited access and download Never Offline(SM) while saying goodbye to poor and unreliable service.