Free Internet Access Is Profitable In Egypt

prostoalex writes "With the demise of free Internet access providers, it's interesting to see this model working in Egypt, where the state-owned telecom allows people to dial-up for free as long as they pay the regular phone access fees. Associated Press quotes the phone line charges being 25 cents per hour. The ISPs that promote free Internet access from Telecom Egypt are then given their share of the profit."

Comments

don't privatize!

[Roadmaster]

Kudos to the egyptians, now they only need to keep their telecom company state-owned; nasty things happen when you privatize those companies without adequate governmental regulation; witness what happened to the telecom companies in Mexico, Chile and perhaps other countries in south/latin america. They turned, overnight, into greedy monopolies which can't be stopped (here in Mexico, Telmex is running their competition, even the giants like Worldcom-backed Avantel and AT&T, into the ground via dumping and other monopolic practices); and the quality of service hasn't really improved. i'll stop ranting now :)

The view from the trenches in Ireland

[afflatus_com]

Here in Ireland, all dialup Internet access is this type of "free", in which you are billed for the phone time online.

For the phone company and ISPs, this "Free" Internet Access Is Profitable In Ireland, also.

Few people like it, and would rush to support the other side of the fence, in which there is a flat rate of about $40 euro a month for dialup, and that is it (following the typical unmetered approach available in most of North America). An option of pay-for-phonecall is good, but when the phone company colludes with ISPs to make it the only option available, it cripples the country's online growth.

The largest ISP in Ireland is IrelandOnline(IOL).
The nexus of protest against this forced free-but-pay-for-the-phonecall scam is logically located at IrelandOffline.org

Poland

[jfedor]

In Poland, we've had "free" dial-up like this for about five years now.

But I wouldn't call it free in the presence of people that still are in this dial-up hell if I were you.

-jfedor

Do privatize!

[Anonymous Coward]

nasty things happen when you privatize those companies without adequate governmental regulation....[in Latin America] They turned, overnight, into greedy monopolies which can't be stopped"

Isn't that what they were before privitization???? The problem isn't the idea of privitization itself, it is that there is too little of it. Monopolies exist because of government regulation that keeps the small fish out. We need to privitize with even less government regulation.

"Telmex is running their competition, even the giants like Worldcom-backed Avantel and AT&T, into the ground via dumping"

Dump on! This means the customers end up paying less.

lets call this round thing a wheel

[flurdy]

I cant see why and how this has made it onto ./
and why yahoo run it as a story in the first place.

It is just a standard dial up service, where the isp gets the money of the telecom company.

I though this was the most common type of dial up in the worl, and has been for years.

This is why Freeserve etc even exist.