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AltaVista: the silence continues

Stand-off enters second week

The scandal of silence currently being mimed by British ISP AltaVista is set to continue until next week despite assurances that someone from the e-outfit would finally explain what the heck is going on. .

Andy Mitchell, MD, of AltaVista in Britain and Ireland, is still away on his hols in the US and won't be back again until next week.

No one within AltaVista's British operation is willing to speak to the press in his absence.

Neither are his bosses in Europe, who declined an interview because they were "reluctant to say anything".

No one at CMGI - the parent company of AltaVista - was prepared to talk either.

Indeed, the silence at AltaVista is so deafening it's enough to make your ears bleed. ®

Register Factoid

Did you know it took more than a week to email the million or so customers about AltaVista's two new offerings? Just in case you were one of the few that didn't get your own personal copy, here it is. Read it and weep.

Dear AltaVista Customer

Since AltaVista made its ground-breaking announcement of its intention to launch an unmetered internet access package on 6th March 2000, the entire UK access market has transformed dramatically.

The Oftel ruling on Friday 26 May 2000 has moved the entire internet pricing structure away from price per minute charging towards a flat-rate standard charge model. The implications of the change are numerous, but most importantly, the battle for Internet dominance will move away from price and towards quality of content and service.

AltaVista Unlimited Internet Access launched on 30 June, 2000, and is currently being rolled out to our list of pre-registered customers. So as to ensure the quality of this service, AltaVista has elected to rollout this service in a controlled manner. We will provide the service to as many customers as possible, as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring that your online experience is a good one.

So as to keep up with the overwhelming demand for AltaVista Unlimited Unmetered Access, and in response to research from MORI, the company has decided to launch two additional access services for you to choose from. The first is AltaVista Net on Demand, where you simply pay for the time that you use online. The second is AltaVista Freetime 20, providing customers with 20 hours of online time per month - customer signing on to these services will be automatically enrolled in the AltaVista Unmetered Access service, if they so desire. AltaVista will continue to rollout the AltaVista Unmetered Access service to as many customers as is possible prior to public availability of flat rate internet circuits. Both the AltaVista Freetime 20 and AltaVista Net on Demand services are available immediately to whomever wishes to sign on at http://uk.altavista.com/isp/ .

More information on these programs can be found at http://uk.altavista.com/help/isp/

We welcome you as one of the first subscribers to these exciting new offerings. For more information, please call 0870-876-7953 (calls charged at national rate), or visit the website given above.

Kind regards,

Andy Mitchell
Managing Director
AltaVista UK & Ireland

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