World Online and AOL cross swords over unmetered access

NEWS AOL's plan to offer unlimited monthly internet access for £10 is likely to be swamped by customers and consequently withdrawn, according to rival ISP World Online. AOL France announced yesterday that surfers signing up for its service would get unmetered access to the net for only FF99 (£10) a month. But World Online France said it was doubtful AOL will be able to deal with the demand. World Online admitted it was forced to withdraw its own unmetered access because it could not handle the number of subscribers. A spokeswoman for World Online France said: "We are just wondering how AOL is going to manage the offer. We were obliged to withdraw our service as so many people wanted the offer. The hotline was overworked after we announced the service. It was terrible. The second frustration was that technically we did not have the capacity to cope. We tried to fix it but we just couldn't in time to meet demand. We needed 10 to 20 per cent more network space. It will be really interesting to see what happens with AOL." The spokeswoman added the only way to provide unmetered access was by offering it through ADSL. "In France, the majority of ADSL access is controlled by France Telecom, we are only the provider. But that means France Telecom can share the technical burden of the service so we can more than handle the demand for unmetered access." World Online is offering unlimited access to the internet for an indefinite time period for only FF129 (£13) a month. In addition it has cut 50 per cent off its usual prices allowing users either seven hours access for only FF22.50 (£2.25) a month or 25 hours surfing for FF40 (£4). AOL France said it did not anticipate any problems.