Toys R Us offers free Net access

NEWS Toys R Us is the latest firm to offer free Internet access. Following the lead of UK high-street giant Dixons, Toys R Us will offer customers a service which bundles five email addresses, 10MB of Web space, Internet Explorer 4.0 and Outlook Express. As with Freeserve, technical support over the phone will cost £1 per minute - a charge which hasn't stopped Freeserve taking just three months to overtake AOL as the UK's largest Internet service provider (ISP). And just as Dixons teamed up with Planet Online - owned by business telco, Energis - to provide Freeserve, Toys R Us is partnering with Cable and Wireless Communications, ICL and Martin Dawes Telecommunications. Mike Coogan, Toys R Us marketing director, said: "This is a non-profit venture for us. Our partners will be handling technical support and set the charges for that service." Dixons is known to make money from Freeserve, however, receiving a percentage of the money telcos make when users dial in to the service. The software needed to use the new ISP service is available at 61 stores throughout the UK. Customers do not have to buy a PC to use the service. Toys R Us sells HP, Fujitsu, and its own-brand Multimedia3000 PCs.