AltaVista shelves plan for US Internet firm AltaVista has aborted its plan to offer flat-rate Internet access in the UK, pointing an accusing finger at the country's dominant telecommunications carrier, British Telecom (BT).
AltaVista said it was scrapping its proposed service less than six months after announcing it would pioneer flat-rate Net surfing in Britain.
Its announcement had little impact on Freeserve or other listed Internet service providers (ISPs), though its plan had hurt the sector when first unveiled in March.
AltaVista's criticism of Britain's telecoms market also ends the firm's honeymoon with British authorities. In March, the prime minister Mr Tony Blair had hailed the proposed new service and the telecoms regulator Oftel called it "excellent news".
AltaVista partly blamed BT for the debacle - a charge rejected by BT.
BT controls the local phone exchanges - the local loop - in Britain and did not offer a wholessale unmetered service to ISP when AltaVista announced its plan.
BT, after prodding from Oftel, has since made available an unmetered-access service to ISPs, where customers are not charged call fees at evenings and weekends - the busiest time for household Internet use. BT's own ISP runs the same service.
Leading UK ISP ClaraNET, contracted to support the AltaVista service, said the AltaVista product had failed because BT's wholesale unmetered service was not tempting.
"BT found a way to comply with the letter of the (Oftel) directive but making sure it was not very attractive to anyone," said Mr Steve Rawlinson, a senior ClaraNET official.
BT denied its stranglehold on the local loop deterred competition. "BT is open and is offering wholesale services across the board," a spokesman, Mr Simon Gordon, said.
