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A UK-based isp, and the first to provide free
internet access to its subscribers. Freeserve was founded in late 1998 by
Dixons, a high-street retailing group. Within six months of launch it was
the biggest isp in the UK, easily overtaking stalwarts of many years'
standing such as demon and aol, and it now has over 2.5m
subscribers. Unlike most isps, which charged a flat fee or an hourly
rate for internet access, Freeserve's original business model was based on
making money from a share of the telephone calls to the service itself and
to its premium-rate technical support line.
Freeserve's success
triggered a revolution in the isp business in the UK, with many
existing companies abolishing their monthly fees and many others starting
new free services. Freeserve's initial public share offering, in July 1999,
was massively oversubscribed. But many of the free isps that were set
up have closed down. Freeserve itself was bought by its French rival Wanadoo,
part of France Telecom, in December 2000, and now looks a lot more like a
traditional isp. It is one of the biggest suppliers of adsl in
the UK, claiming nearly 50,000 subscribers at the end of 2002. |
