Will the trend be good for business? The free model bets that subscribers will generate so much advertising or e-commerce online that it'll more than make up for the lost revenues from charging customers to log on. Of course, the capability to service customers will be crucial. Otherwise free access could soon become like the free electricity supposed to be doled out to Punjab farmers-it's free if it's available!

But even if we assume that access will be hassle-free, that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll all flock to a free ISP. While the arrival of subscription-free access in the UK led to a significant increase in the number of online users, it did not lead to any increases in time that these users spent online. Consumers have also proven themselves willing to pay for Internet access and services-witness the success of AOL, or Mindspring or Earthlink.

Of course, competition may result in a race to the bottom. If that happens, players like VSNL or MTNL, which aren't dependent on their ISP revenues for profits, will be the best placed.

Does that mean across-the-board free service is an inevitable reality? It's just as well to remember that being an ISP costs a lot of money. And web advertising is far from being the magic wand that will turn red into black. Only if a company is in a position to give its customers other valuable products will a strategy of offering free web access make sense.