Outrage from LineOne customers over scrapped service

LineOne's decision to scrap its unmetered service has led to outrage from customers who feel let down by the ISP.

The unmetered service launched by LineOne at the end of March was cancelled Monday as the ISP decided it was "financially unsustainable". While it refuses to reveal how many subscribers are affected, it put some of the blame on its users.

"Ten percent of users were accounting for 40 percent of minutes," says a LineOne spokesman. RedHotAnt -- which faces a barrage of criticism over connectivity to its unmetered service -- also blamed customers last week as managing director Bob Garrioch referred to bandwidth hogs as "abusers".

Reaction from users Monday was indignant. "Whatever did they expect? If you offer unmetered access then it's fairly obvious that people will take advantage of that," says one ZDNet reader and LineOne subscriber.

"As someone who's been using the Net for about four years now, the feeling of liberation I got from surfing without worrying about my phone bill was immense. Come 30 September the plug will be pulled. And I will be faced with the same old "choice"... I will be shackled to the behemoth that is BT once again."

Another ZDNet reader thinks the ISP has ripped off consumers. "All I've got to say is what a rip off. LineOne told its members that they could use the service as much as wanted 24 hours a day, they never asked for us not to use it too much."

LineOne is also blaming BT for failing to free up its local loop to competition. "That is certainly a factor," says a LineOne spokeswoman. BT enters a fresh row with rival operators Tuesday as the two sides battle out when a usable alternative to SurfTime will be available.

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