One of the things that strikes me as being really cool about the Net in the USA is the fact that an increasing number of the people I talk to now have full-time Net access in their homes.

Why would anyone want full time Net access?

Simple - they now use ICQ, email or Net Meeting as a replacement for the telephone. If you've ever tried to call someone in the USA you've probably already found that a lot of people use their answering machines as a kind of "filter" against telemarketers and unwanted interruptions. This makes it pretty hard to get through to some people and if you're paying for toll calls - telephone tag can be expensive!

When you've got a full-time Net connection it's really simple. You can either email them or drop them an ICQ message saying "I'll ring you now".

There are also the numerous "voice over IP" products which you can use to conduct spoken conversations over the Net - thus eliminating the need for a phone at all. In fact - your IP number can become a kind of cyberspace phone number.

Getting a full-time connection in the USA is neither hard nor expensive in many areas. Cable modems are growing dramatically in popularity. These devices hook up to the same cable that many Americans use to receive their subscription television programmes and provide speeds of anywhere from 128KbpS up to 1MbpS.

How much does this cost?

Well at least one guy I know is paying just US$40 per month for his full-time high speed cable-modem access (and that includes the rental of the cable modem itself).

There are other options available also. Wireless Net access is growing in availability and popularity in the States. For as little as US$60 per month you can get a 1Mb/S wireless link in some cities. Not only is it economical but it doesn't tie up your phone line and you can even use it on your portable while you're moving around the city.

So, what are the options for the "home user" here in NZ?

You can get a digital line but they're not cheap - generally out of the reach of the average individual's budget, and there's still the ISP charges to go on top.

If you're in an area where ISDN is available then you could consider that as an option - but remember the $0.04 per minute will add up to around $1,700 per month.

The cheapest option is just to get a second phone line which you can dedicate to the role of "full time" Net connection - but even then you may find the lifetime of this is limited. Telecom are unlikely to smile favourably if too many residential customers start doing this.

As far as your choice of ISP for full-time access is concerned you'd really only be able to consider volume-charged or flat rate providers. Using a service such as ClearNet or XTRA would run up a bill of around $1,800-$2,000 per month!

ISPs such as IHUG offer "unlimited access" for around $45 per month but if you're hanging on the line full-time, you're going to get kicked off every few hours and, at peak time, you may not get reconnected immediately if you try dialing back.

You'll also need to make sure that your ISP is willing to provide you with a static IP number. This simply means that unlike the normal situation where your computer is likely to have a different number every time you connect to the Net, you'll always get the same one. This makes it easier for people to find you when you're using some comms software. It also makes it easier to run your own Web server if you want to.

So... the cheapest full-time access you can get will probably cost you about $90 per month (second line / flat rate ISP) but it may not be as "full time" as you'd like and you'll still be stuck at 56K or 33K (depending on where you live and what modem you use).

I suspect that here in NZ we'll eventually have a hybrid full-time system based on the use of satellite technology. In effect, when someone calls you over the Net, the satellite broadcast will deliver the notification to your PC which will then dial your ISP to establish the back-channel connection. This "on demand" type of pseudo-full-time connection would provide the best compromise between cost and performance for most of us, offering nation-wide high speed access and 24 hour availability without even the need for another phone line.

Now, I can't wait for IHUG and SkyTV to get their satellite services running!

Well I'm about to introduce a *FREE* service which may make life a lot easier for the average Net user and a lot harder for the junk mailers.

No, it's not "yet another junk-mail filter", it's something that works on a different principle and will hopefully deter all but the most determined direct-marketer.

Stay tuned for more information!