ISPreview Interviews Telewest about its services and the market

Due to confidentiality reasons, I cannot answer the specifics of that question. However, it is interesting to note how 'average' usage varies by the type blueyonder service. As I mentioned, there are three main types of blueyonder services:

• pay-as-you-go (dial-up)
• surfunlimited (dial-up)
• hi-speed internet (broadband)

Subscribers to blueyonder pay-as-you-go, our introductory service, are generally light users of the internet and use it for basic applications such as email.

blueyonder surfunlimited subscribers spend significantly more time online than blueyonder pay-as-you-go customers, which is not surprising given that surfunlimited is an unmetered service and enables customers to surf the web without worrying about call charges.

However, what some consumers may find interesting is that subscribers to blueyonder hi-speed internet spend significantly more time online that blueyonder surfunlimited customers, despite the fact that both services are unmetered. The reason for this, based on feedback from customers, is that blueyonder hi-speed internet provides a genuinely revolutionary internet experience relative to normal dial-up service.

The fact that blueyonder hi-speed internet is up to ten times faster than the standard dial-up service, is 'always-on,' and does not tie up the phone line enables customers to make much more out of their internet time and experience.

6) How do you feel about people surfing on your ISP for 8-10hours or more a day? Is this a problem or just a natural factor you've accounted for?

This is a natural factor, and we are happy that some of our customers find so much enjoyment in our services that they choose to spend very significant amounts of time online. But regardless of whether you are a light internet user subscribing to blueyonder surfunlimited, or an early adopter subscribing to the hi-speed service, our goal is to consistently provide consumers with a high quality service.

In doing so, we communicate and enforce acceptable use policies amongst our subscribers, so that they are aware of common internet etiquette and so that no one user damages the online experience of other customers.

7) Every ISP or Telco has to report to BT, how have you found your dealings with them to be? Good/Bad and if so then why?

Telewest Communications owns its own state-of-the-art fibre optic network and, while it does have some interactions with BT, it does not have to work with BT to offer any of the blueyonder internet services.

This factor was one of the key reasons Telewest was able to launch blueyonder surfunlimited as the first widely available and scalable unmetered ISP service in the UK.

Surfunlimited was launched on 14 February 2000 and we are looking forward to celebrating its one-year anniversary in February 2001.

With almost a year of experience in running our unmetered surfunlimited service, we feel we are the most experienced unmetered ISP service and, as such, we are confident we will continue to deliver an extremely reliable and robust service in 2001.

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