BT Lame Brain spills 0800 beans

BT could be gearing up to offer limited toll-free access to the Internet, according to a vulture-eyed reader of The Register. He was on a train when a man he believed was heading for the BT labs outside Ipswich sat opposite him. "In his hot sticky hands was a business plan for toll-free Web access, which he kindly laid down on the table while paying for his ticket," said the roving vulture reporter who asked to remain anonymous. "The plan showed that BT will have toll-free access to the Internet which will be paid for by sponsorship," he said. "The connection will only offer limited access (what this means I'm not sure) but it will include a news feed," he said. "Also listed was a community site which would contain links to other BT sites and other 'Public Info'. "On the back page of the document there was a diagram and from that I could make out that this new system would identify the caller as either a BT customer or a non-BT caller. Depending on the caller's telco it would then route them to different services. "I couldn't make out much more but it was definitely about 0800 Internet access without subscription," he said. BT has refused to comment on such wild speculation. ® Tune into Cash Register and turn on to our daily Net Finance News