X-Stream extends free Net access offer

NEWS UK Internet service provider (ISP), X-Stream is to offer free Net access every weekend for the rest of March. The move follows yesterday's offer of six hours' free access to users via an 0800 phone number. The gesture was part of X-Stream's first birthday celebrations; last year, the firm became one of the first UK ISPs to offer subscription-free Net access. X-Stream MD, Paul Myers said the evening had gone "amazingly well", although he admitted more users than usual experienced an engaged tone when they dialled up. The company claims it signed up 5,000 members last night, to add to its existing user base of 200,000. To cope with increased demand, X-Stream is now working to expand its capacity by as much as five times by next weekend. Lucent will be one of the main beneficiaries of X-Stream's expansion. The ISP is ordering $28m worth of equipment from the networking giant, including its PortMaster4 Integrated Access Concentrator, which supports over 800 56K modem or ISDN sessions per chassis. Industry watchers have doubted whether X-Stream can expand its 0800 offer even further. Daniel Bieler, a consultant at Ovum, said: "I don't see how they can do this in the long term, but it's certainly a very interesting way to get new users. These free ISPs will have to increasingly think of clever marketing opportunities like this to differentiate themselves." In a departure from the model used by the likes of Freeserve, TescoNet and others - where call revenues are carved up between ISPs and their telco partners - X-Stream has long relied on advertising presented to its users. MD, Myers said: "The company isn't beholden to interconnect revenue to survive."