Spanish Web users go on strike

NEWS An estimated 1.7 million Spanish Web surfers are expected to go on strike today in protest over high call charges for Internet access. Instigated by a group of hackers, the move is also backed by Spain's Association of Internet Users, after the country's dominant telco, Telefonica, announced a sharp rise in local call prices. The hike in price is part of what Telefonica refers to as a "rebalancing strategy" since the deregulation of the market, in which the telco needs to make its long-distance prices more competitive. Robert Hall, competition and regulation analyst at Ovum, said: "This shows strong commercial logic. Its local call prices are currently at the lower end of the European scale and it can afford to increase them without being called in by regulation authorities." But for the protesters, a 126 per cent increase is too much, and many sites have changed their home page to say 'Web on strike', whilst others are being urged to leave the telephone off the hook all day and avoid surfing the Net. However, Hall said he would be "very surprised if the protest had any impact". Despite increased competition in the long-distance sector, Telefonica still holds a near monopoly over the local loop market, which Hall believes will not see any real change for a few years.