Virgin unmetered service delayed again

Virgin Net has yet again postponed the national rollout of its unmetered internet service while it continues to sort out problems encountered during its trial service.

The ISP's Stop-The-Clock service, which promises internet access for a flat monthly fee, was launched in April for 10,000 existing Virgin Net subscribers. A national rollout was scheduled for July, then put back to September and has now been postponed indefinitely.

Virgin Net told vnunet.com in July that a national rollout of the service would be delayed until September, because of a "cross section" of issues which need to be refined, including technical and customer support issues. A Virgin Net spokesman said today these problems are still being ironed out and would not confirm a definite date when the full service will launch.

"We were hoping to have a full service available in September, but a number of problems encountered in the trial means we will not roll out nationally until we reach a point where the service is robust," said the spokesman, adding that Virgin Net will not commit to a new potential launch date.

"Virgin has certain expectations and we want to deliver first time round. The 10,000 triallists are extremely happy with the service, but there are a number of areas which we need to improve before we launch a national service," the spokesman said.

Virgin Net would not say whether the delay was due to plans to launch a service based on BT's wholesale tariff, Friaco (flat-rate internet access call origination), but did confirm it was "looking at a number of options". Last month AOL launched one of the first flat-rate unmetered internet services to be based on the Friaco tariff.

Other ISPs, including World Online and Claranet, have recently said companies are restricted in the pricing and cost of unmetered services until Friaco is widely available.