Attention K Mart shoppers—what used to be free now comes for a fee. If you want more than three hours of Internet access each day or exceed 12 hours of service in a month—its going to cost you. Just how much might depend on your taste in towels.

by Jim Wagner of internetnews.com [February 23, 2001]

BlueLight.com adjusted the terms of its no-fee dialup service this week, joining the ranks of the other free ISPs that recently changed the way they do business. As one of the last bastions of free dialup access in the nation comes to an end, K Mart hopes its loyal shoppers will readily migrate to the Web.

Similar to the restrictions first announced by the company late last year, BlueLight.com users will receive only the first 12 hours of their Internet access free of charge, beginning in March.

The e-tailer capped the length of time subscribers could access its free service in December, 2000. At the time, BlueLight.com indicated that the move was made to curb bandwidth hogs from clogging its network. Right now, users are booted off BlueLight.com's network after 25 hours of access time is logged each month.

Grand experiment
But as of March, BlueLight.com is restricting users to just 12 hours of free Internet access each month. Current users have been automatically enrolled in the basic free Internet service plan, with the option to upgrade to unlimited access for a nominal fee or for a substantial online purchase at K Mart.

If customers want more time online, the K Mart Corp. subsidiary now offers a "premier" Internet service, giving customers 100 hours of Internet access each month for $9.95. But there's a catch for paying customers—access is limited to just three hours a day, after which, users are disconnected until the next day.

However, BlueLight.com users do have a third to secure free, unlimited Internet access on a monthly basis—but they have to complete an online purchase at K Mart for the service upgrade. Unfortunately, purchases made at a bricks 'n mortar K Mart stores do not apply.

How it works
For example, if a registered BlueLight.com user buys a Martha Stewart designed towel for $3 in an online purchase, the K Mart shopper is automatically eligible to receive free, unlimited Internet access next month. The user is notified of the service upgrade by email, so a Web purchase made in February guarantees unrestrained Internet access in March.

After that, however, shoppers are going to have to fork out a little more cash to get the unlimited service. Customers get one month of free, unlimited service for every purchase made over $100, in increments of $50, for up to six months, after the first month.

Confused? So is the average BlueLight.com user.

In the simplest terms, when a BlueLight.com user spends $250 (before shipping and handling) buying items online from K Mart, they secure four months of unlimited Internet access. Of course, if BlueLight.com users migrate to the average full-service ISP for unlimited Internet access, they would spend $84 for the same four months service. Not exactly a blue-light special, is it?

Limited time only
But the window of opportunity for BlueLight.com users to receive unlimited Internet access is closing fast. Designed as a test to see if online shoppers will buy products in order to receive free Internet services, the special only lasts until May 31, when officials said the terms of deal are subject to change.

Steve Feuling, BlueLight.com chief marketing officer, said the restrictions makes this ISP the only retailer in the U.S. offering free Internet service to its customers.

"With BlueLight's new ISP, we are creating the ideal Internet service for the online shopper by actually rewarding them with free Web access and significant discounts on our site," Feuling said. "No other ISP offers such a value to its customers."

That's because most U.S. retailers co-branded their free Internet service with now-defunct Spinway Inc. K Mart bought the intellectual property and facilities from Spinway, along with most of its employees late last year, establishing an instant online presence.

BlueLight.com unceremoniously dumped customers using the service through retailers like Costco Inc. and True Value Hardware that had similar deals with Spinway.

Free Internet service in the U.S. is now, a thing of the past. NetZero Inc., announced Feb. 7 that they would charging users $9.95 to access its Internet service for more than 40 hours a month.

Earlier this month, Juno Online Services Inc., informed its free user base that if they wanted to continue connecting to the Net under its free access plan, their computer may be used as part of a "virtual supercomputer" program in the future, for projects yet to be determined.

Dim the lights
Tenured Internet access providers understand that they must keep their subscriber services simple, in order to appeal to the mass market. Tiered service plans for Internet access have not proven to be popular in the past, because subscribers never knew exactly what their cost for services would be each month.

Given BlueLight.com's multiple layers of access plans, it's doubtful that the novice ISP would buck the trend. Although the service provider might elude an immediate mass exodus because many users opted to use the free access plan as a second, back-up service.

BlueLight's Internet access service currently supports more than six million users. We'll see what the e-tailer has for a subscriber base in the months to come.

— End