Soon-to-be French-owned Freeserve has given assurances that it has no plans to ditch its Unlimited Freeserve Time product - even though it's being run at a loss.

The news should come as some relief to Net users (although maybe not to the ISPs new owners) who feared they would be forced to accept Freeserve's new - and more expensive - unmetered Net access product, Freeserve Anytime.

Both products offer 24/7 access to the Net including, the cost of calls to the Net, for one fixed price.

A number of Register readers were alerted when they received an email from Freeserve earlier in the week tempting them to sign up to Freeserve AnyTime, which should be available from mid January.

AnyTime costs £12.99 a month, although existing Unlimited users can get it for £9.99 a month for six months (then it reverts to £12.99) if they transfer by the end of April 2001.

Unlimited users aren't just upset about the increase in the cost of the new product - they're also peeved because they will lose access to discounted telephone calls, which is part of the Unlimited product.

Asked whether Freeserve planned to can its Unlimited Freeserve Time product, a spokeswoman for the ISP said: "Non." ®

Related Story

Freeserve offers new 24/7 unmetered package