True, free Internet access is needed now

Britain may be making incredibly foolish decisions regarding privacy issues on the Internet, but it is about to get what users across Europe have longed for: true, free Net access. The US search engine company AltaVista, the Digital (now Compaq) spin-off, says it will provide free Net access after a once-off service charge of £30£50 sterling (#49.50-#82.52). NTL immediately responded, announcing its own offer of £10 per month for unlimited Internet access for UK cable customers.

Unlike the no-subscription charge services from British providers like Freeserve, where users get free Internet and e-mail accounts but must still pay phone access charges, AltaVista and NTL's plans are the real thing - no-call-charge access. Free or extremely low-cost Net access is considered by analysts to be the single most important driver for accelerating the use and growth of the Internet in Europe. In the US, where half the population is online, local calls are free.

Over here, we're now lagging behind dangerously in Net access options for both home-users and companies. This grim situation threatens to maim our ability to keep up, much less lead, in ebusiness.

Network providers continue to bicker among themselves like petulant children over interconnect rates - the amount they pay each other when their calls travel on each other's networks - and throw up court challenges that penalise Internet users and damage the crucial expansion of Internet use in Ireland.

Every month lost to this selfish lot is becoming critical. We are waving goodbye to the handful of advantages we have had. These include good ties to the US technology industry, some energetic young Net companies making a global splash, a welcoming ebusiness environment and a genuine concern among some Government decision-makers that the Republic should pursue the ideal of a real "information society".

Indeed, another advantage has been Eircom's early move to offer very low cost 1891-number access (making our connection rates significantly lower than Britain's for some time).

But despite assurances 15 months ago that Irish Internet users would soon benefit from - and be the first Europeans to enjoy - a new monthly flat-rate phone charge for Net access, Eircom never delivered on this important commitment.

While Esat eventually came up with a £17 per month flat-rate offering, the charge pertains only to weekend and evening use. In the meantime, BT now offers a £9.99 sterling evening and weekend flat-rate package in the UK, and is set to roll out an all-hours flat-rate plan costing around £30 monthly. And 500,000 initial users will get to sign on for AltaVista's free program. The Government needs to create legislation that prevents network and other crucial infrastructure providers from holding the State's future to ransom.

The telecommunications regulator needs clear and unambiguous power to regulate. The Dail must address these issues immediately or we'll all watch the international community take its e-business elsewhere.

WHO remembers Lyle Bowlin? Let me jog your memory. About a year ago one of the New York Times' well-known correspondents wrote a story about - what else - the online bookselling market. He was interested in Amazon.com's swift rise and rise, of course. But he was also intrigued at the opportunities the Net offered to small unknowns. The article mused about the Net's purported level playing field. He profiled a small bookseller in the small town of Cedar Falls, Iowa - Mr Bowlin. Could such a mouse roar and become a real challenger to Amazon?

Overnight, Mr Bowlin became a celebrity. His site was slammed with hits and he had to scramble to cope with perhaps the deadliest of Internet phenomena: sudden success. So what happened next? Well, the fact that Positivelyyou.com probably isn't in your Net favourites says it all - the business is now dead and gone. But the story of his past year is absolutely essential reading for anyone doing business on the Internet.

The New York Times has produced a little primer for Net businesses in the form of lessons drawn from Mr Bowlin's experience, at www.nytimes.com/lib rary/opinion/friedman/030300

frie.html. The number one lesson? Small is OK. Large is OK, But being a medium-sized business on the Net is really, really tough.

WHAT is wrong with some Website designers? Why do we continue to get sites that should be helpful and instead are utterly confusing, even to experienced Net hands? My exasperation reached a peak last weekend as I tried to find some information on Internet service provider Indigo's newly redesigned site. The site looks pleasant enough, but the designers have countered users' expectations of how the site should work, thus violating some of the most basic principles of good site design. This is a serious problem for a site that is supposed to be a gateway for new Internet users. Based on my own confusing interaction with the site, newbies are going to have one heck of a hard time.

They've underlined bits of text everywhere that aren't actually hypertext links. They've not underlined, or otherwise highlighted, bits of text that are links. Bits that you think should be links turn out not to be. They use odd, hard-to-read text colours like grey. Some of the (tiny) grey text is hypertext as well, going against the standard Web guidelines that links should be in blue, and that once a user has clicked through on the link, the text turns purple. Standard design metaphors exist for a purpose - they make finding your way about easier. Pages heavily used by beginners should stick to these simple rules.

Because the site doesn't adhere to accepted visual standards, I had to waste time scrolling around the page with my mouse to figure out where links were and whether they'd take me where I wanted to go. If I hadn't needed to find a specific bit of information, I'd have abandoned the site. This is not the experience a company wants to offer an Internet user and is a sure way of losing site visitors (and, of course, business).

Surely, the Web offers myriad opportunities for design creativity without sacrificing highly navigable, well-designed pages that offer a coherent user experience?

Finally, in last week's column regarding Amazon.com's controversial attempt to claim the rights to two technologies it uses on its website, I confused the concepts of patent and copyright. Amazon.com has obtained patent rights, not copyright, on what it claims are unique technologies.

Klillington@irish-times.ie