SurfTime: BT drops the Beach Ball

2000-06-01

After much speculation and some ribbing from friend and foe alike, it looks like the end is nigh for BT’s SurfTime Internet service. Despite a relaunch effort last week, even spokespeople inside the company are seeing the writing on the wall. So – where is it all going wrong for BT?

According to BT, “SurfTime is the new way to use the Internet without paying call charges.” Unfortunately, this is wrong on two counts. SurfTime may have been new when is was first touted last year, but today a number of ISPs and other communications companies, such as Amazon, Freeserve and NTL, offer similar services. BT'’ offering may now be competitive to these other providers, but it is not free – it costs 19.99 for a 24-hour service and 5.99 for evenings and weekends, plus (read the small print) users may pay an additional charge for the ISP service they connect to. Okay, there are no charges for individual calls, but a flat fee for the month does not really qualify as “without paying” in anyone’s language.

SurfTime’s launch on Thursday last week was followed a ruling by Oftel which requires BT allow other telcos to allow unmetered access to the Internet. Essentially, this will force the company to release its iron grip on the “last mile” between the local exchange and the home, at least for Internet access. This will cause whole new levels of competitions which, over the next few months, look set to cause BT to replace SurfTime with something competitive. BT has been competing before, but against rival technologies: this time, it faces competition on the local loop, which has proved unassailable in the past.

What is more, a little research on The Register discovered that, though BT announced 20 ISPs supporting the SurfTime service, 17 of these belonged to the same service provider - Affinity Internet. Hardly a ringing endorsement. A BT spokesman was quoted on ZDNet UK as saying “If neither ISPs nor the public want it, it will die a death and so be it.” If that’s painting a gloss, we’d love to hear what BT spokespeople are saying behind closed doors.

What we are seeing here is the dying throes of a very old company, which has already announced a strategy to release it from the shackles of the past. BT has reached a point at which it can no longer rely on momentum to bring in profits, as proven by its less-than-successful results announced a month ago. The company’s new ventures should stand it in good stead for the future, as long as it is prepared to act as one of the new generation of communications service providers and not as an old-style, monopolistic telco. It is right that Oftel has acted to level the playing field, at least for unmetered Internet access: we wait with interest to see how BT will react. Any decisions it makes over the next couple of months could well seal the company’s future.

(First published 1 June 2000)