Tesco Introduces Free Internet Access

The supermarket chain Tesco is launching subscription free internet access for its 10 million Clubcard households across the UK. Tesco has been retailing groceries through the internet since November 1995 from its website at www.tesco.net and was the first retailer to provide internet access.

Marketing director of Tesco, Tim Mason commented: “This is an exciting new phase for the development of the Tesco brand. We already have an E-commerce business, half our home shopping orders come from customers who choose to use the net, but we want to do more on the Tesco site by making more products available to net users. Free access is an important next step in doing this.”

In retaliation, Dixons, the electrical retailer which launched the first free internet service in September last year (see Newsline), to great success, has announced that it is slashing the cost of its telephone helpline to 50p a minute. Freeserve has attracted a million users in the past four months, and claims that 827,00 of those are regular, with 60% of active users having logged into the service in the last three days.

Tesco: 01992 632 222 Dixons Group: 01442 888 588