UK Executive at AltaVista Admits Errors

Andy Mitchell, Managing Director at AltaVista UK, says he mislead his US bosses about the status and readiness of AltaVista UK's Internet service.

by Jayson Matthews
of siliconvalley.internet.com
[August 28, 2000]

A top executive at Santa Clara-based AltaVista's United Kingdom division has admitted he mislead his bosses in the United States about the company's recent "temporary" pullout from trying to establish unmetered Internet servcie in the UK. His admission comes just days after US executives at the company announced the pullout, pinning the blame for the failure on the UK's largest telephone carrier (see AltaVista to UK: 'Oh Behave!').

Andy Mitchell, Managing Director at AltaVista UK, says he early on decided to delay the company's rollout of unmetered Internet service in the UK, but that he failed to tell his management here in the US about the decision. Mitchell's miscommunication led to US executives at the company blaming British Telecommunications (BT) for the pullout, saying the carrier had failed to comply with government recommendations that unmetered access be implemented throughout the county.

Apparently this wasn't the case.

Mitchell also admits he is responsible for AltaVista CEO Rod Schrock appearing on television in Great Britain and announcing that the service was already being utilized by upwards of 30,000 happy Brits.

"I am remiss in not informing you (or my management) earlier about this situation," Mitchell says in a written statement posted on AltaVista UK. "I made the decision to delay the rollout and, subsequently, put on hold the service. Regrettably, during a television interview AltaVista's CEO erroneously referred to an estimated number of users expected to have been signed up for the service based on our capacity and projection for the service roll out at that time. He, too, understood that our service was operating."

Why Mitchell failed to tell his employer's about the delay isn't clear, nor is what prompted the recent admission, and no one at either the company's UK or the US office returned internet.com's request for further comment.

It's an odd situation at best, and the skepticism can already be heard throughout Silicon Valley questioning whether the US office was truly blind to Mitchell's entire operation.

The full text of his letter follows.

Message from Andy Mitchell
I apologise to all who feel let down by AltaVista's decision to put our unmetered Internet service on hold. I have made mistakes throughout this episode, especially in terms of my poor communication with you, and I apologise for any confusion or inconvenience.

AltaVista is passionate about the importance of reducing the high cost of Internet access in the UK. Many studies have documented this as the single greatest obstacle deterring people from spending time online. We remain steadfast in our championing of the need for low-cost Internet access in Britain.

From the day we developed the concept of unmetered UK Internet access provided by AltaVista, we have been working hard to deliver it. However, we developed serious concerns about our initial Internet service provider's ability to supply a satisfactory service due to technical issues and business principles that had arisen.

We worked fast to find an alternative supplier, and explored other ways to launch a low-cost service. We supported MCI WorldCom in its lobbying of Oftel to secure open-market access to flat rate interconnect bandwidth — a campaign which eventually led to Oftel's ruling on Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination, called FRIACO, which is the UK telecom-pricing regime for flat-rate Internet access.

At the end of June, we had been prepared to start rolling out the service to 30,000 customers per month. However, we became concerned about FRIACO, on which delivery of the unmetered service depended. We couldn't risk launching a service until fully unmetered FRIACO lines were widely available. Subsequently, we decided not to take subscription fees if there was a danger that we might have to cancel the service.

I made the decision to delay the rollout and, subsequently, put on hold the service. I am remiss in not informing you (or my management) earlier about this situation. In fact, regrettably, during a television interview AltaVista's CEO erroneously referred to an estimated number of users expected to have been signed up for the service based on our capacity and projection for the service roll out at that time. He, too, understood that our service was operating.

Like other organizations (sic)that have bailed out before us, we see no way at this time to provide a competitive product. The FRIACO issue has left the marketplace in disarray, and the UK is more dependent than ever on Oftel to level the playing field.

We will continue to lobby and bring pressure to bear on all interested and influencing parties, until a truly unmetered access service is available across the UK. In the meantime, I will be focusing our efforts on our world-leading search engine, to ensure that customers get the quality service they expect from AltaVista.

Kind Regards

Andy Mitchell
Managing Director
AltaVista UK

—End