AltaVista to detail unmetered offer on Monday

AltaVista will unveil details of its unmetered internet access service on Monday, three months after it shook the market into action with its plans to scrap internet phone charges.

The US company, which is remaining tight-lipped about the announcement, claims to have received a "great response" to its plans to offer "internet access free of UK call charges", according to promotional material on its website.

Customers who have already expressed an interest in the service will be contacted as soon as the registration form becomes available. On Monday the company is expected to announce the fees and a choice of online or telephone registration.

In March, when AltaVista announced its plans, Martin Keogh, business development director at AltaVista Europe, told vnunet.com that users would need to pay an initial charge of between £35 and £50, and then an annual renewal fee of between £10 and £20. Sign-up to the service will initially be restricted to 90,000 users a month.

AltaVista will be keen to limit the initial numbers it signs up to avoid problems suffered by other ISPs. Rival service LibertySurf yesterday suspended registering new customers to its services after high demand, and last month LineOne invested in greater capacity for its service to clear congestion problems.

Cable company NTL has also frustrated its customers with delays to the distribution of the CDs needed for the service. NTL said the CDs would be sent out on a "first-come first-serve" basis, except for existing ntlworld paying subscribers who would receive CDs first.

However, a number of NTL customers contacted vnunet.com last month to say they had not received disks, adding that the company had failed to prioritise its existing customers. A spokeswoman for the cable firm had said it hoped to reach all existing customers by the end of May.

The spokeswoman said today that the distribution to existing customers should have been completed, with a few possible exceptions.