Is it now a free for all on the Net? 

The man who took on British Airways hopes to shake up the internet industry. Richard Branson has announced that in April Virgin Net will become the latest internet service company to offer free monthly access to the worldwide web.

Dixons launched its highly successful service, Freeserve, 18 months ago. Already the service has built a subscriber base of about a million people (and more than 40 pc of these accounts have been set up by new users) boosting the company's stock market value.

Tesco has also just launched a free internet access service, which is available only to its Clubcard holders.

Branson thinks that Virgin has even more to offer: 'Virgin Net also offers a host of quality content. Other inter-net service providers do not offer this level of content for free. The ones that do offer quality content insist that consumers must pay for it.'

The high-profile launch of Virgin's free internet service is likely to stimulate further take-up of the internet in the UK. According to estimates from the Department of Trade and Industry, the worldwide web has become the fastest-growing marketplace and rumours are rife that more companies are about to offer free internet links.

There are already several organisations  which offer free e-mail services.  (Free Resources)

Neil Bradford, director of Fletcher Research, which follows internet developments, predicts free internet access will soon become the norm. 'Free access is going to provide a boost to the UK internet industry,' he says. 'It will be used more widely in homes nationwide.' The free internet service providers (ISPs) aim to encourage as many people as possible to sign up so they can then sell them other services. Tesco aims to introduce grocery home shopping services and put its mother and baby catalogue on to the internet.

As with other ISPs, you still have to pay for the cost of phone calls when you use the internet and some companies expect you to pay one-off setup charges.

FREE INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS
Name	Set-up fee	Support line costs	Email accounts	Free Web space	Phone	Website
BT Click Free	n/a	50p per min	No limit	n/a	0800 7317887	www.btclickfree.com
Cable & Wireless Lite	£10	8p max per min	1	n/a	0800 0923001	www.cwcom.net
Connect Free	n/a	50p per min	No limit	n/a	0702 1152525	www.connectfree.co.uk
Free-Online	n/a	50p per min	No limit	No limit	0870 7060504	www.free-online.net
Freeserve (Dixons)	n/a	50p per min	No limit	15MB	0839 517517	www.freeserve.co.uk
TescoNet	n/a	50p per min	5	10MB	0906 8020111	www.tesco.co.uk
X-Stream	n/a	50p per min	1	20MB	0870 7306466	www.x-stream.com
All prices subject to change. Virgin Net will be offering its free, monthly internet access package to its existing customers from April 1 and to the general public from May 1. For more details call 0500 558800 or visit the company's website (www.virgin.net)

There is, however, a hidden expense in the cost of such companies' technical support lines. Beginners who have initial difficulties connecting can sometimes find themselves with a hefty phone bill.

To encourage people to try their service, Virgin will introduce a special monthly subscription offering unlimited calls to their technical support lines for £5.99 a month (customers not taking up this offer will be charged at £1 per minute). It seems that, very soon, paying for internet access will be a thing of the past.