Sir, Tomas O Gormain (Letters, December 6th) poses simple questions about how much it costs to use the Internet, and cannot find a book with this information. He will be pleased to hear that Electronic Frontier Ireland (EFI), a voluntary `group, has published a short guide containing this and other basic information about the internet. It is available at the address below, in exchange for two 32p postage stamps and a self addressed envelope, to cover printing and distribution costs.
Briefly, the costs are as follows. You need a computer, with a modem to connect it to the phone line. The computer need not be a particularly sophisticated model, and could cost less than £800. A good modem will cost £130-£240.
There is a once off registration fee of £18-£31, payable to the Internet Service Provider(ISP). Ongoing costs are typically about £12-£18 a month. In addition, you must pay for the telephone call between yourself and your provider. If you are in the local dialling area of your ISP and spend less than 15 minutes "online" each day, outside office hours, the telephone costs could be as low as £3.50 a month. If you need to call from outside the major urban centres, however, it will cost a good deal more.
Buying the equipment is quite an outlay for an individual. The prospect of a spiralling telephone bill will also deter many, particularly those who have to dial long distance to use it. Ironically, this is the very group that has the most to gain from technologies such as the Internet.
There is an immediate need to reduce the cost of telephone services, to make it more economic to access the Internet, and to provide public access points, where anyone can sit down and use this important resource. If we don't take this action immediately, the Information Revolution will only serve to increase the already widening gap between country and city, and between rich and poor. Yours, etc, Secretary, Electronic Frontier Ireland, 28 Charleston Avenue, Dublin 6.