The Scream! and ISPreview Put a Few Questions to WOL

1. Presumably you've done the sums and its better in the long term for you to loose (rid yourself?) of this 20% of your customer base, these customers have probably been with Localtel\WOL the longest they have been loyal? Especially given that these are the potential ADSL customers you've been nurturing for so long I am "puzzled"! What happened to the idea of trying to keep heavy users on-board for future broadband plans, the new pricing structure appears to do exactly the opposite? Do you think you can treat them poorly and they will come back when you have some form of broadband service? If you are so close to ADSL then why not have put this back for another couple of weeks?

The reason for making the change is simple economics. The cost of delivering the service versus the price we were charging left too large a gap. The introduction of FRIACO has been delayed beyond what anyone could reasonably expect and the date when it will widely be available is not yet known. You must remember that we have been delivering unmetered daytime access since April this year, we are the only company who has been doing this on a large scale except for NTL who are mostly using their own network and are not therefore incurring such metered charges from BT. There had to come a point where we had to start to limit our potential exposure. remember, we have not yet put anyone's price up - we have merely given notice of a change. Our DSL strategy will be announced very shortly.

2. There has been a near 100% negative reaction on the-scream don't you think you have made the wrong decision?

There has been an initial negative reaction from people who use the internet a lot. The decision is the right economic decision for the company. These actions will make sure that World Online is able to deliver products for the future, which will benefit the whole UK internet community (including those who have been affected by this short term pricing change).

3. Where do you see WOL going in the future?

World Online has a range of products to suit each type of internet customer:

0845 dial up for the occasional net user
1p a minute for people dipping their toe in the water
Freedom Lite at £2.99 for 50 off-peak hours
Freedom 24 at £14.99 for 100 hour anytime
Broadband DSL

The intention is to introduce other products into this range of internet access products along with new telephony and cellular products plus greater functionality and content on the portal.

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