The countdown to the launch of AltaVista's all-you-can-eat Net access service has begun.

In less than 48 hours the most hyped yet-to-be-launched ISP in Britain will finally flick the switch and open for business.

You can guarantee that the next day or so will be hellish.

Still, The Register has received assurances from AltaVista's PR flaks that the service will not go tits up on Friday.

What's more, all 250,000 people who registered (earlier reports put this at one million but hey, what's three quarters of a million people between friends?) will be enrolled within six to eight weeks.

And, thanks to a managed roll-out, the cock-ups that have plagued the launches of other ISPs simply will not happen.

The trick to this massive roll-out working well is for people to take their turn in line and only sign up for the service once they have been invited to do so. Queue jumpers will not be tolerated.

We have to say, this news fills us with confidence. ®