Telecom matters

One of the main reasons for the predominance of the Internet in the United States is the relatively low cost in most of that country of connecting. In many parts of the USA access is available via free local phone calls. This enables users to connect and stay connected for long periods without incurring huge charges.

The case in the UK is much different. Call charges are metered and the cost varies according the time of day. Most personal UK users go to great lengths to keep costs down. These measures include the following.

1. Never connect between 8am and 6pm except occasionaly, very quickly, to send and receive email.

2. Surf before 8am or after 6pm - prefereably after midnight when the USA have stopped work for the day.

3. Spend most time surfing at weekends.

4. When surfing, download pages quickly and view them later using an offline reader.

5. Compose and reply to all email while offline.

6. Use accmail methods to retrieve web documents that you know are mainly text.

7. Use ftp to upload pages to websites rather than editing online.

8. Avoid visiting chat-lines and bulletin boards.

9. Add the Phone number of your ISP to your Friends & Family list and make your ISP their Best Friend in order to take advantage of available BT discounts.

10. Support campaigns aimed at altering the price-structure of telecommunication in the UK.

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Before any discounts, local-call rates in the UK from residential and business lines, including VAT are currently
one pence per minute at weekends (midnight Friday to midnight Sunday),
one and a half pence per minute offpeak (6pm to 8am)
and four pence per minute at peak times,
with a minimum call charge of five pence.

The current prices can be looked up at
http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/current/docs/Call_Charges/00161.htm

Information on the Campaign for Free Local Calls can be found at
http://www.internet-magazine.co.uk/flc/welcome.htm

There is a lot of information about telecom matters to be found on the website of the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications at
http://www.unmetered.org.uk/sitemap/index.htm

Another site had a campaign song based on their slogan The Cost of Calling is Just Appalling, but appears to have disappeared down its own mouthpiece!

One way of getting very economical access in the UK has been discovered by the author of the page at
http://www.sujoy.com/features/freenet.shtml

The Into Something website carries an extensive list of ISPs in the UK that offer free access, although most will not discount the cost of phone-calls. The information can be found at http://www.u-k.ac/access.html

Various links to telecom related sites can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/8818/

Last updated: 17th August 1999.