UK Web strike misses the mark

NEWS A UK Internet strike organised for last weekend was not only aborted but also lost the support of a leading pressure group. Known as the Cyberstrike, the move was intended as a protest against the high charges users face when logging onto the Web. UK pressure group, the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT), originally gave its backing, and even offered the strikers space on its Web site, but was concerned when emails to the organisers went unanswered. CUT spokesperson, Erol Ziya said: "When one of Cyberstrike's members, 'Lord Storm', came to visit us, he was offered help but decided that none was needed. In the end they had so much negative reaction they decided a couple of days beforehand to abandon the whole idea." But Ziya said there is a strong case for free Net access, claiming users have long had to soak up "propaganda" from telcos. "These companies have been putting out stories on network overload for years to make the user think that too many people on the Internet will clog it up. Then, at the same time, large telcos send out press releases saying their infrastructure is so advanced and has an amazing amount of bandwidth," he said. One analyst was not surprised by the failure of the strike. "Although it's hard to predict what happens on the Web," said Robin Duke-Woolley, principle analyst at Schema, "when I was first told about this so-called strike, I thought it wouldn't amount to much." "People will always face a charge of some sort," he said, adding that UK residents pay around a penny a minute for access, which in contrast to the US is not high at all. In contrast, last Sunday's French campaign, Internet Moins Cher, was more successful. Organisers claim that up to 90 per cent of users boycotted the main Internet providers.