End of the road approaching for free internet access

By PETER GRIFFIN

The future of free internet access is looking shaky amid rumours that the country's last remaining no-fee net service, Zfree, is about to shut.

Zfree is back on its feet after users last week reported being unable to access international websites. That led to speculation that Zfree's owner, TelstraClear, was scaling back the service's broadband capacity before phasing it out completely.

TelstraClear spokesman Ralph Little said there were no plans to reduce Zfree's bandwidth capacity.

The glitches had been fixed, with Zfree staff putting them down to "technical problems with international bandwidth".

But rumours persist that TelstraClear is soon to pull the plug on Zfree and that customers will probably be offered a move to TelstraClear's fee-based internet providers, Clearnet and Paradise, at discounted introductory rates.

That would signal the end of the free internet model in New Zealand, following an international trend in which free operations have gradually disappeared as they have become too expensive and demanding to maintain.

Free internet took off in 2000, and at one time internet users had five free service providers to choose from.

All but Zfree have since closed or switched to charging for net access.

Zfree reportedly has around 250,000 subscribers, but industry sources estimated its active user base may be as low as 30,000.

Still, Zfree has its devoted fans.

User Bevy, posting a message to the ISP's newsgroup, said: "There have been ups and downs. I remember waiting two to three hours to connect sometimes in the early days. But for the main, you have kept things cranking well."