Re: UKNM: free pc

[Ray Taylor]

Sean Phelan <

seanmultimap [dot] com

 said:


>Well, a variant of it worked in France in the 80s.

>

>France Telecom distributed millions of Minitel terminals and operated

>the portal sites ( le 11, 3615, etc) and the billing system. It is/was

>very close to the Freeserve model, in that the network charges are

>bundled into the per-minute call charges.

>

>Of course, they took the truly visionary approach of paying the content

>providers a substantial revenue share, and that part was all automated

>and was built in to the billing system.


I agree that France Telecom was visionary in introducing the Minitel

terminal, initially on a free-hardware model. Visionary because of the huge

boost this gave to their over-priced state monopoly telephone tariff

business model. UK cellular telephone suppliers are equally "visionary"

providing subsidised telephones (sometimes free) in order to generate call

time revenues. Service providers and retailers (including Dixons) have

always been happy to participate in this "everything is free" boom because

of the huge commissions they earn on airtime sales.


But personally, I have never taken a "free" or even cheap mobile telephone.

I have always bought a quality product of my choice on the basis that

nothing is free, you just pay more for something that is less easy to define

and control, and for which there is little in the way of customer service.


Free access services are big at the moment for obvious reasons. But they

only work because call time is so expensive and in anticipation of ad

revenues and online product sales that have yet to materialise.


So all this euphoria about "free" internet access is, in my view, misplaced.

The important thing is, as I have said before, that Dixons and Tesco now

offer an internet proposition aimed at the mass consumer market. Who else

could have done it but a big retailer used to addressing a consumer

audience? Even AOL has now followed their lead when it comes to presenting a

consumer friendly image to customers and prospects and has at last departed

from their technonerd approach in advertising.


But the "everything is free" movement has a limited shelf-life. What counts

in the long run is value for money, value add and, most important of all,

customer service. Tesco and Dixons each have their own take on these things

and it will be interesting to see how the competition between the two

develops. Personally, I think that Tesco now has a better proposition than

Dixons but then I am biased on the subject.


Personally, I look forward to the day when you can pay for a combined

access/connection charge from telecom or other service providers (including

retailers like Tesco and Dixons) where all charges are transparent and

consumers are able to get value for all aspects of the charging rather than

getting one thing for free and paying high hidden charges for a poor service

(as in the original Freeserve model) on the other.


A single monthly charge for an IP connection service via cable ought to

provide access to Internet, Broadcast TV services, local telephone calls and

other services for a set fee. Additional pay-per-use services should be

available via the same access point - premium TV, long-distance calls,

peak-time calls. Such services ought to be available through re-sellers

(such as Dixons and Tesco) who are able to provide a level of customer

service that telcos and old-fashioned ISPs can't always match.


Any content provided would be either free, supported by advertising, or

bought from the content provider either direct or via the service provider.


Thus you would have three simple and distinct contracts, possibly combined

into one or two suppliers:


1. With the access provider - BT, local cable TV, other telecom service or

reseller who provides and maintains the wire and backup services

2. With the content provider (Sky TV, ITV, BBC, AOL and any web content).

You may also have relationships with ..

3. Retailers/distributors who sell their products via internet, interactive

TV and other digital channels.


If the likes of Dixons or Tesco are able to fulfill all three contracts in

this model in partnership and/or competition with BT and the cable TV

companies and other telcos, then we will at last have a situation where

telecommunications services are provided on a competitive basis, rather than

the state-controlled near monopoly that we still suffer.


The "let's make everything free" madness is great for driving new consumers

online. But's let's not lose complete control of our sanity as far as the

long-term is concerned.


Regards,


Ray Taylor

nmc/adplan

0181 639 0015 

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