When joining Videotron in March 1996 I received the letter below on which I based my choice of ISP and cable company to take full advantage of free calls to the Internet.
At that time I contacted all the ISPs listed (I have all the letters and replies) to obtain their charges and conditions of use. This was to make absolutely sure that I could use the Internet for free in the evenings and weekends.
Please note I use the cable line for nothing else except ISP access and have been charged £7.10 each and every month since March 1996.
I have a separate BT line with Friends & Family and Premier Line which means 25% discount on calls - maybe or maybe not cheaper than cable calls in various instances. But the most use the BT line gets (by the girlfriend! - mainly national calls) is when I'm online during the evening and weekend. So I need two lines to allow peaceful operation.
The loss of free calls would only encourage me to have a second BT line with all the discounts (25%) which would undercut CWC as their discounts are on average about 15% lower than the standard BT charges (they are always playing cat and mouse with this, though).
Returning to the letter, I consider it to be one of the most important that Videotron ever produced. It is dated 11/95 and took up a single sheet of A4:
The Internet
The Internet is a world-wide information network which is fast becoming the communications medium of the future.
The Videotron Telephone Service offers state-of-the-art technology at a price well below that of BT.
If you connect to an Internet Service Provider who also has our phone service, your calls to the Service Provider evenings and
weekends are absolutely FREE. So you can surf for as long as you
like without incurring any call charges on your phone bill!
Currently the following all use the Videotron Telephone Service:
INTERNET PROVIDERS IN LONDON
- Bogomip - 0800 137536
- Direct Connection - 0181 2972200
- Discovery - 0181 694 2240
- Exnet - 0181 244 0077 (for business customers only)
- Games Net Ltd - 01222 798967
- Nethead - 0171 207 1100
- PC Users Group - 0181 863 1191
- Dolphin - 0181 932 5000
- Neuronet - 0181 265 5050
INTERNET PROVIDERS IN HAMPSHIRE
- Aladdin - 01489 782221
- Total Connectivity - 01703 393392
Why not connect today and start surfing the information
superhighway of tomorrow?
A copy of the leaflet can be viewed here (85KB).
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