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By Tony Hallett, 14 December 1999 14:36

NEWS AltaVista has signed up more than one million registered users of its North American free Internet access service since its launch last summer. The figure - based on how many copies of the Internet access software have been downloaded from its site - was achieved in four months, and ranks the Internet service among North America's half dozen. Until recently, free ISPs have been rare in the US, with some early pioneers failing. In the UK and some other countries they have flourished as companies split dial-up call charges with telcos, but in the US this revenue stream isn't available, because local calls are unmetered. Instead, ISPs have generally levied monthly subscription fees. However, the situation in the UK is about to change. An overhaul of the NTS - the formula for splitting call revenues calculated by Oftel - and unmetered options from BT (see 'BT launches unmetered Internet access' http://www.silicon.com/a34491 ) and Telewest ('Telewest trumps BT with unmetered offer' http://www.silicon.com/34663 ) are likely to mean many UK ISPs have to look increasingly to advertising and ecommerce, or risk going back to a subscription model. AltaVista CEO, Rod Schrock, attributed the success of AltaVista Free Access to the strength of the company's brand. New media investment firm, CMGI, is now the majority owner of AltaVista.