Today's Electronic Telegraph:

ISSUE 1621 Tuesday 2 November 1999

Big demand sends free internet link crashing By Robert Uhlig

THE first free internet service in Britain was launched yesterday and promptly collapsed when it could not cope with demand.

Internet services such as Freeserve offer free subscriptions but CallNet went one better, providing an 0800 freephone number for users to make their connection to the internet. Other companies previously have offered a similar service, but only for a limited time, such as at weekends.

CallNet ignored warnings that enabling subscribers to avoid permanently the cost of a local rate call to the internet was likely to create an overwhelming demand. A spokesman for North American Gateway, CallNet's principal investor, said it had set up filters that controlled how many people could connect to its services by phone code area. It claimed that customers would be able to connect in 23 seconds on average.

Yesterday it was clear that CallNet's preparations had been insufficient. Its website said BT had asked it to suspend registrations while it increased capacity.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), November 02, 1999