MP demands cheaper net access from UK government

Net users in the UK have a new political champion willing to take their fight for better and cheaper access right to the very top of Government. Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat MP for Northavon near Bristol, spoke for all of the UK's ten million Netizens today as he quizzed the Government about the cost of Net access in the UK. During his allotted 15 minutes he touched upon all the main issues affecting Net users including the cost of metered dial-up access and the slow introduction of broadband technologies such as DSL. The present pricing arrangements for telcos was not drawn up with the Internet in mind, he told the Commons with just a handful of MPs in attendance. "The chief concern for Net users is the metering of local calls," he said. "The analogy is that we are being charged for window shopping on the Internet." "Yet, the experience is that when metered charges are abolished usage increases," he said. He said the British temperament is well suited to this technology and he warned Government spokesman Michael Wills MP that unless the cost of calls came down the UK would lose out. ®