BT stamps on freephone Net ‘trial’

BT has denied it is undergoing trials for 0800 toll-free access to the Internet. David Pincott, a spokesman for BT, said today that no such trials had taken place, quashing hopes that the telco was about to cut the cost of Net access in the UK. His comments were in response to frenzied newsgroup activity this weekend after someone published details of a toll-free number, username and password. Net users thought that Christmas had come, including two readers of The Register, who claimed they had successfully logged onto the Net using the number. "Someone leaked access details for a BT account on the Net on Saturday, spreading round the telecom related newsgroups," said one, whose name has been withheld just in case BT wants to bill him for the time he spent online at their expense. "I checked the leaked number userid/password and they proved to be valid. Did a traceroute and the first router that I hit belonged to BTinternet. "I phoned the BT Internet number on their site about the security breach and they acknowledged it was one of their numbers," he said. According to Pincott, though, the number was used in the past for a V90 modem trial and not to examine the potential of toll-free access. It simply allowed BT staff to dial in to the service without incurring any charges, he said. ®