The likelihood of additional companies following Gateway Computer and telecommunications company Ocean into the free Internet service provision market increased yesterday as the Irish office of UUNET, the global Internet service provider, announced a package that allows any company to become a virtual Internet service provider (ISP).

UUNET, a division of telecommunications giant MCI World Com, will provide the necessary administrative and technical support for any company - even one with no technical expertise or infrastructure, or knowledge of the workings of the Internet - to supply Internet access accounts to the public or to its own customers or clients.

"We envisage that we are going to have a lot of companies that will be interested in this," said Mr David Healy, Internet specialist at UUNET Ireland.

Mr Healy believes UUNET's offering will differ from Ocean's approach because most companies would use the service, Uudial VIP, as "an added Internet tool" along with other marketing techniques to increase brand awareness and market share.

"There are companies with large databases which are very interested in using this product to sell brand awareness," he said. Companies could use their Internet service to sell products and services directly to customers and to communicate with them, he added. UUNET believes companies with strong branding and good marketing skills would benefit most, particularly banks, distribution companies and large retailers.

Companies from those sectors are well represented in the free Internet market in Britain, which has proved buoyant since the entry of electronics retailer Dixons last September. Dixons is now Britain's largest ISP, with more than 1.5 million members.

In Ireland, Gateway Computer is the first UUNET client for the virtual ISP service. Gateway launched its Gateway.net service last week for purchasers of its PCs.

Mr Healy said companies could also generate some income by offering an Internet access service, either through charging premium rates for technical support or through interconnect charges, the amount one telecommunications operator pays another when they route calls through each other's networks.

Mr Healy does not recommend that companies use high technical support charges to raise revenue.