A charity-giving ISP is offering 24/7 unmetered Net access for just £9.99 a month - believed to be the cheapest deal so far in the UK.

ItsGoodToGive.co.uk also says that it will donate £2 of the subscription fee each month to charity.

The price undercuts the UK's biggest French-owned ISP, Freeserve, by £3 a month - and AOL UK and BT by £5 a month.

The offering is based on the wholesale unmetered Net access product, FRIACO, which caps the costs of Internet calls.

However, John Ager, executive chairman of Its Good To Give Ltd, refused to say how he could offer such a low price for the service. He also declined to say which telco was supporting the service.

Playing his cards close to his chest he said: "I'm not giving away how we do it."

Instead, he said that overheads were minimal and he had no marketing costs. Many customers were referred to him by charities including Arthritis Care, British Heart Foundation and the Children's Society.

Ager's reluctance to say how he is able to offer such a low price may make some Net users wary of signing up - regardless of the good cause.

In a statement, Ager said: "We are offering this price because we can afford to do so, even with the additional donation to our charity partners. There is no need for us to charge over the odds just because this is what our competitors are doing."

"We are aware that many ISP's have run into difficulties in the past with unmetered access services and we have watched and learned from their mistakes.

"Some people may write us off as a small minnow in a large pond, but we are ready and able to take on the bigger and more established Internet Service Providers.

"Where we have an advantage is that we are prepared to deliver a price that our users want, not just what they might tolerate," he said.

ItsGoodToGive.co.uk has 10,000 subscriptions available initially. ®