Omniseek: Directory: Lycos comes to US market with free Net access

Lycos has delivered a massive boost to the free ISP model in the US by announcing its own subscription-free dial-up access service. The bigshot portal is teaming up with fellow CMGI subsidiary 1stUp.com Corporation, described as a "leading provider of ad-supported Internet access solutions". Alta Vista, also a CMGI subsidiary, already offers a subscription-free ISP service in the US. But Lycos is a much bigger name. Its move really throws the cat among the pigeons: it will be interesting to see if Lycos can outflank paid-for Internet access services such as AOL or Earthlink, on the one hand, and rival portals such as Yahoo!, Excite, And Go.com.