September 3, 1999 Web posted at: 12:12 p.m. EDT (1612 GMT) by Laura Rohde

From...

VIDEO
CNN's Charles Bierbauer summarizes the report.
Windows Media	28K	80K

LONDON (IDG) -- The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) launched its own free Internet service provider (ISP) freebeeb.net, joining the fray with about 250 other free ISPs in the U.K.

"We are not taking on the freeserves or other free ISPs. We are very consciously targeting new users in the middle-age and middle-class range," said Rupert Gavin, chief executive of BBC Worldwide.

The company appears to be positioning itself for an expected explosion in e-commerce.

In about three to five years, the BBC expects online commerce profits to be its primary source of revenue. Though e-commerce is in its beginning stages, "when it goes off, it will go off exponentially," said Rupert Miles, director of beeb.com.

Announcements of commercial partnerships will be made within the coming months, Miles said.

In addition, the BBC expects that there will be 10 million to 15 million new Internet users in the next eight years, and the advent of digital TV will be responsible for bringing a good number of them online.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE
	IDG.net home page
Make your PC work harder with these tips
Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net
IDG.net's personal news page
IDG.net's products pages
Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you
Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletters
Search IDG.net in 12 languages
News Radio
	Fusion audio primers
	Computerworld Minute

Freebeeb.net involves a number of partnerships. The BBC will be providing the content and marketing for the ISP, ScottishTelecom is responsible for the service's Internet technology and infrastructure, and distribution of the ISP start-up CD will be through BBC outlets, the U.K. retail and convenience store chain TNS, and about 1,500 main U.K. post offices, the BBC announced.

As with other free ISP services in the U.K., including freeserve and the newly launched Netscape Online from AOL, freebeeb.net will offer Internet access as well as free e-mail accounts, and 20MB of free Web page space.

To alleviate concerns about e-mail security in light of the recent exposure of Microsoft's Hotmail accounts, the e-mail will comply with POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3), and be held on secure servers, the BBC said. The service is PC and Macintosh compatible.

Revenues for the "free" service are to come from sharing interconnection charges with the telephone companies. Telephone companies charge users per minute for even local telephone calls. With its telephone company partnerships, the BBC expects freebeeb.net to become profitable within two years, Gavin said.

The home page for the service will be divided between the commercial side of the company, beeb, and the publicly funded BBC. All initial investment will come from beeb with all profits going to BBC Worldwide, Gavin said.

Growth expectations for the ISP are modest, according to the company. "In the first three years we expect sign-up to be in the hundreds of thousands," Gavin said.

Gavin would not disclose how much had been invested in the venture and would only concede the marketing budget to be "several million" pounds.

Laura Rohde writes for the IDG News Service in London.