When I left San Francisco a few months ago, DSL connections were going for $40 a month with zero installation fees. In Switzerland, my new home, all the major ISPs offer free dial-up service, but a DSL connection is at least two years away. My local cable provider offers a downstream-only connection which means I would have to simultaneously keep a standard phone line connection going to send info upstream to the net. And here's the crux of the matter for internet users in Europe - local calls are metered. In other words, you pay an average of $0.05 per minute to be connected to the net via your 'free' ISP.

If you are a typical North American net surfer, you are connected for just under an hour a day. Imagine now there's an extra $90 on your phone bill. The obvious effect of metered local calls is that Europeans spend about one third as much time online, between 18 and 20 minutes per day, compared to their American counterparts.

When, during the past 12 to 18 months, the majority of the ISPs began offering free connectivity, i.e. no monthly service charge, the number of European internet users climbed dramatically. The overall percentage of homes connected to the net in Europe now matches the American rate of between 25 and 30%. However, this number varies widely within Europe, from as low as 8% in Greece to over 50% in the Scandinavian countries, with Finland leading the pack as the most wired country.

The companies in the best position to draw in all these new subscribers were the new, post deregulation, long distance companies and the national telecoms themselves. By connecting via their access number, subscribers to their telephone services get discounted rates on metered local calls. Although they are giving away internet connectivity, the ISPs in many countries split the revenue from local calls with the national telecom company. These companies also developed another strategy for bringing in revenue from their internet customers - start a portal.

It is hardly in the interest of these telecom/ISPs to fight for free local calls. T-Online  (Deutsche Telekom), Wanadoo (France Telecom), and Bluewin (Swisscom), are all the leading websites in their respective national markets.

The loudest voice in the fight against metered local calls, and its effect on the growth of the internet in Europe, is AOL. "America" Online finds itself relegated to number 2 or 3 in most of the European markets and has struggled to match the ever changing pricing schemes of its European competitors.

AOL put on the Netscape mask to offer its free services under the 'Netcentre' brand in the UK in response to the huge inroads made by the ISP/portal Freeserve, although their UK-AOL service continues to have a monthly fee. They also recently matched the recent offering by France Telecom for 18 hours of free service for $25 per month.

AOL has gone beyond altering its pricing scheme to actively lobbying European governments to further open up their telecommunication markets and develop unmetered local call services. In the UK, AOL has partnered with The Times newspaper to launch the 'free the net' campaign.

Although the increased competition in the ISP market has led to a variety of discounted pricing options, especially in the UK, Europeans remain burdened with fewer technological options and more expensive connections. And while I agree with the critics of the current system that a 'free-to-air' model of internet connection will open up greater possibilities, I don't believe that by simply matching the American pricing system, the behaviour of European internet users will come to exactly match that of their neighbours across the Atlantic.

AOL blames its inability to seize the number one spot in every country on the unfair telecom pricing environment. But I can't imagine that "You've Got Mail" sounds quite the same to someone sitting in Paris, in Barcelona, in Athens, in Budapest, or here in Geneva, no matter what language it's translated into.

In my next column, I'll look into what it means to claim to be the number one portal in Europe and examine some of the potential candidates.