From: Customer Services To: Date: Monday, March 27, 2000 13:25 Subject: Global Internet Dear Matt, There has been a lot of hype in the press recently regarding the announcements that some ISPs will be offering 'free' Internet calls. Understandably we are receiving a number of enquiries from our customers asking for our response. At face value, this is fantastic news for the consumer, but what does it really mean? Firstly, all the announcements indicate the ISP's intentions but none have delivered as yet. For want of being cynical, it is interesting to note that the AltaVista announcement has been made a few months prior to their floating on the Stock Market. Secondly, if you read deeper into each individual offer, they all come with conditions attached. With the AltaVista offer customers will be served with continuous advertisements - the service they operate in the U.S. is set up so that if you click out of the advertising 'box' you will loose your connection to the Internet. In other words, it's advertising or nothing. You also have to pay them a set up fee, so you are therefore committing some money to a service whose performance is unknown to you. With the NTL offer, you must be an NTL telephone customer and you have to commit to spending at least £10 per month on voice calls. This raises the question of whether you will make £10 of voice calls each month and what will the penalty be if you don't? In general, it's also worth checking out any other hidden costs involved in these offers. For example, will they offer telephone support? Will they charge Premium rates for calls if they do offer support? Will they have customer service staff to help with every-day enquiries? It's worth remembering what happened to Freeserve when they launched. Customer demand was understandably high, as a consequence their network suffered making connection speeds painfully slow - if you were one of the lucky ones who were able to connect at all. It would be fair to expect that there will be capacity problems with the large volumes of Internet traffic that will have to be carried by these 'free' ISPs. Whilst we have pointed out the pitfalls, in reality, it is entirely up to you to decide who your Internet Service Provider will be. You need to decide if you want a 'free' service or whether you continue to take advantage of a paid-for, quality service. I can only emphasise some of the benefits to staying with Global Internet as follows: -Dedicated Customer Service! -Accountability from us as you are paying for a service -Internet Magazines' "Best ISP On The Planet" Award ror 2 years running -24 hr Technical Support (Not a premium rate number) -Multimillion pound investment in our network, ensuring speed and reliability -NO BANNER ADVERTISING ON USERS WEBSPACE -2 dial-in numbers in case one telco company has problems -ISO (British Standard) registration of quality commitment -Affiliation with the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) to protect customers -Access to well over 30,000 Newsgroups -ADSL to be offered in near future (based on current trial outcome) VALUE ADDED/NEW SERVICES: -@here - https://here.global.net.uk/ -OCM - http://www.global.net.uk/home/news/ocm/default.asp -Webmail - https://webmail.global.net.uk/ -Domain Webmail - https://webmail.global.net.uk/domain/ We are also looking closely at all these 'free' service announcements and are making considered plans as to exactly what we will offer our customers. We are continuing to add to our portfolio of products and services - most recently WebMail and our @here service which forwards your e-mails to your mobile phone; coming soon there will also be a series of enhancements to e-mail. One of the key projects we are involved in, and dedicated to, at the moment is the roll out of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). We pride ourselves on adding value to our service and by offering ADSL we'll be doing exactly that. We are delighted to have offered some Global Internet customers (who were technically compatible) with the ADSL trial - free of charge. This service will provide our customers with the option of high-speed Internet access and broader bandwidth through a connection that is always open. As the line is always open it means that you don't pay for the minutes you spend on-line but you pay a flat rate monthly/quarterly fee. For more information and to register your interest now please see our website at http://www.global.net.uk/home/default.asp In the meantime, we are continuing to add to our portfolio of products and services - most recently WebMail and our @here service which forwards your e-mails to your mobile phone; coming soon there will also be a series of enhancements to e-mail. With regard to our plans as an ISP we can assure you that we are considering a number of changes which will benefit you and your comments are always welcome. Please view our homepage http://www.global.net.uk/home/default.asp or please contact customer services on 0870 909 8000 Kind regards, Kaiser - Customer Communication Administrator Global Internet - A Concentric Network Company