1999 was the year of reluctant promises from BT, Britain's telecoms monopoly. Pressure groups like the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications, as well as internet users, had been casting envious eyes overseas where internet access was not only priced at a flat, monthly rate (rather than by the minute) but was also super fast thanks to DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) technology. Why did Britain have neither?
The answer came in December, when BT's chairman, Sir Iain Vallance, said he thought the internet was still not "fit for purpose" and that BT needed to hold back "over-exuberant children" - BT's customers. The company, many concluded, was either not "getting" the internet, or was playing dumb to protect revenues. Still, we over-exuberant children will - eventually - get what we want.
Its arm twisted by telecoms regulator Oftel, BT has been forced to act. By March it should be offering ADSL (Asymetric Digital Subscriber Line) to six million households and businesses in the UK. These lines can deliver digital content at least 10 times the speeds of today's fastest conventional modems, and will be "always on" - meaning you won't have to wait to dial up to the internet. ADSL is more than just fast internet access - it opens up the doors to new interactive entertainment like on demand television and sophisticated online gaming.
We might even see BT signing up internet service providers to offer the new services. That's because its grip on the "local loop" - the telephone wire from the exchange - will be loosened from the middle of next year, allowing other operators to offer their services direct to users.
For those of us who don't live in one of the big cities in the first round of the ADSL rollout, there's still something to look forward to - flat rate internet telephone calls. From April, net addicts will be able to choose from several packages which will give unlimited dial-up access at certain times for a flat monthly fee.
The fee varies depending on when you go online: unlimited weekend access will be £6.99 a month, while anytime all week will be £34.99 a month. Critics say the prices are still high.
But the most exciting side-effect of flat-rate pricing is that our behaviour will change. Freed from the worry of a meter counting our every minute online, we'll be happy to search for more, read more online content, browse web shops at our leisure, send even more emails and pit our wits against each other in online gaming arenas.
