| Freeserve. com plc | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Defunct |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Hemel Hempstead, England, UK |
| Industry | Internet & Communications |
| Products | Internet service |
Freeserve was a UK Internet Service Provider, founded in 1998 from a project between Dixons Group plc and Leeds-based hosting provider Planet Online to provide free Internet access to customers buying new home PCs from Dixons stores. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Hemel Hempstead is a Town in Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom with a Population of 81143 at the United Kingdom Census England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks In Marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a Market that might satisfy a want or need The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet DSG international plc ( is one of the largest Consumer electronics Retailers in Europe Leeds ( is located on the River Aire in West Yorkshire, England Planet Online was a UK business-to-business Internet Service Provider. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated
Freeserve was one of the first of the UK's ISPs to dispense with the usual monthly subscription fee for Internet access, and instead to collect a proportion of the standard telephone line charges. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks (At the time virtually all Internet access in the UK was by dial-up access via BT lines. Dial-up Internet Access is a form of Internet access via Telephone lines The user's computer or Router uses an attached Modem connected to a BT Group plc (formerly British Telecommunications plc) which trades as BT (ˌbiːˈtiː bee tee) (previously known as British Telecom and still ) Further revenue was obtained from advertisements on Freeserve's homepage, which was set as the default page in the customers' web browsers upon installing the Freeserve connection software. Advertising is a form of Communication that typically attempts to persuade potential Customers to Purchase or to consume more of a particular Brand The homepage (often written as home page) or main page is the URL or local file that automatically loads when a Web browser starts and when BT sought to challenge Freeserve's business plan by arguing that under the regulatory model (known as Number Translation Services, or NTS), it should receive more money for each call, and in January 1999 Oftel announced that they would carry out a review[1]. The Office of Communications (Y Swyddfa Gyfathrebiadau or as it is more often known Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the Communication
Freeserve floated on the stock market in July 1999 (as Freeserve. A stock market, or (equity market is a private or public market for the trading of company Stock and derivatives of company com plc), at which point they had approximately 1. 5 million subscribers and were valued at between £1. 31bn and £1. 51bn ($2. 02bn and $2. 34bn)[2].
By September 2000, Freeserve had more than 2 million active subscribers[3]. This was vastly more than the incumbent telephone provider BT, something that was unique for a European ISP.
Freeserve was bought by the France Telecom-owned company Wanadoo in 2000 for £1. France Télécom () is the main Telecommunication company in France and one of the largest in the world Wanadoo is the former name of the ISP division of Orange SA, which is a subsidiary of France Télécom. 65bn ($2. 37bn) and changed its name to Wanadoo UK plc on April 28, 2004. Events 1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " [4].
Following a rebranding exercise in June 2006, Freeserve and Wanadoo UK now form part of the UK operation of Orange, and are known as Orange Home UK plc. Orange is the brand used by France Telecom for its Mobile network operator and Internet service provider subsidiaries
Freeserve used notoriously long email addresses. With the format name@shortname. freeserve. co. uk, for example, Dave Smith would have the email address, dave@dsmith. freeserve. co. uk. Original Freeserve customers have kept their long email addresses to this day.
In August 2007, Orange started a process referred to as the "Night of the long juicer" to purge unused Freeserve accounts from its system. [5]
Originally Freeserve accounts would be deactivated after 90 days if the dial-up number was not accessed (hence not generating any revenue for Orange). Customers would then receive an error message when trying to access their Freeserve email via another connection, but could reactivate the account before it was deleted by simply visiting the Orange website.
Orange extended the deactivation period to 260 days in 2007 but under the new regime users' accounts and all email are deleted permanently from Orange's servers without any warning to the end users.
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic