Other ISPs suffered overwhelming demand for unmetered services when these were offered before the ISPs had secured flat rate deals with BT for access to the local loop, meaning that the ISPs, by paying per-minute charges to BT, made losses on customers who spent long periods on-line. Alta Vista admitted last month that it had never launched its promised unmetered service and blamed BT for its failure to do so.
In May, the UK regulator, Oftel, forced BT to begin offering a wholesale flat-rate tariff to its telecoms competitors, known as Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO). The regulator mandated that BT should offer this flat-rate tariff after reviewing a formal complaint from the telecoms operator MCI Worldcom last December. FRIACO-based, flat-rate internet access tariffs are only now being made available to ISPs. Prior to FRIACO being made available, CallNet, LineOne and Virgin.Net withdrew or delayed their unmetered packages.