Free round the clock Web access is here

A German ISP appears to have started offering round-the-clock unlimited access to the Internet for a flat-fee of around £50 a month. Details are still sketchy but it appears Bremen-based ISP Internet-Professionell is offering five different price plans. Among them, PC Profi-Tarif gives users round-the-clock access plus five email addresses for DM149 -- around £50 a month. At the other end of the scale users can subscribe to the Schnupper-Tarif to receive toll-free calls between 7:00pm and midnight, and one email address, for just DM49 (£16) a month. Speculation that the ISP had teamed up with Deutsche Telekom to offer the service appeared to be dented when a spokesman for the telco giant said he wasn't aware of any such partnership. Attempts to contact Internet-Professionell to find out more drew a blank. A spokeswoman for AOL Europe confirmed that they had been made aware of the new service last night although she was unable to comment further without more information. ®