Freeserve is actively trying to discourage people from signing up to its narrowband Net access service, The Register can reveal.

Britain's leading ISP has removed links from its portal to its unmetered products in a bid to cap registrations while it upgrades its systems.

A spokesman for Freeserve denied that there was a major problem and insisted that Freeserve was committed to unmetered Net access.

Links to the service will resume in three weeks.

"We're not looking to attract new customers at the moment," said a Freeserve spokesman.

Freeserve currently has 140,000 people signed up to its unmetered packages - Off Peak Freeserve Time (which is based on BT's Surftime and costs £5.99 a month) and Unlimited Freeserve Time (which provides 24/7 Net access for those willing to cough up £10 month or make £10 a month in voice calls). ®