On 1 May 99, at 23:57, Don Kendrew wrote:

> Now the question. . . he would like to have an ISP in Europe, that he can
> reach, by local dial-up in whatever country he is in at the time, by
> calling a local, in-country number.

  Traditionally, network access in Europe has been run by each nation's PTT
(postal/telegraph/telephone agency), at (government monopoly) prices that
Americans regard as outrageous.  I think things have gotten better in Britain
over the last decade, and as the EU forges closer links there is likely to be
more demand in Europe for such a service.
  When I worked for I.P. Sharp (1985-1992, bought by Reuters in 1989), their
network was accessible throughout Europe by dialing local PTT numbers.  In most
countries, they had been able to arrange this to be the equivalent of an
"800" number, so that the user did not need to have a local PTT account; PTT
charges were covered by Sharp, although this did make for higher-than-
otherwise subscriber prices.  Access to the Internet from that system was
primitive (email-only); IF it still exists, this may have improved.

> He would then sign up with an account at email.com, so that his students
> and friends could reach him by E-Mail forwarded from his email.com account.

  Using web-based email means that he really doesn't need an ISP account, just
access to a browser.  It's possible that public web access is being offered in
some European libraries, as it is here.  (Odds are reasonable, I think, that
libraries that offer patrons web access are likely to also have web sites of
their own....)


David G

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