I joined FREESERVE on the first day they started out, saved me hundreds of pounds.
Wasn't freeserve on an 0845 number. I joined screaming.net/locatel whose internet was totally free (no fees, no call charges).
Freeserve was initially just for Dixons/Curry's/PCWorld PCs but opened up later, trying to find out when it was generally available.
Screaming.net/localtel started April 1999, freeserve started Sep 1998.
Screaming.net/Localtel were losing money very fast, but their marketing stratedgy was to build a customer base ready for Broadband when they would recoup their money. Eventually they got taken over by WorldOnline and then Tiscali.
I still have my screaming.net dial up account and this is still my primary routing for my emails, all other emails are redirected through this account and I pick it up on POP3 through broadband.
It was on an 0845 number, but remember that up until that point (which was only 12 years ago) we'd been paying a monthly subscription to your service provider for an internet connection, plus your phone call to their "local" server, and then you had to pay for the amount of data you downloaded as well, it all added up
The original Freeserve concept was called Channel 6, between Planet Online and Packard Bell, but PB pulled out so Dixons/PC World joined them instead. Dixons etc used to sell PB's so that is how they got into it and why the Channel 6 idea was just meant to be for PC's bought from the Dixons Group.
Dixons gave away the Freeserve CD's (for free), which you then installed into your Windows 98 PC, and it instantly took over EVERYTHING, putting its logo into IE the lot, took a few weeks before everyone realised that as long as you signed up for it online you didn't actually need their software, and to visit the Freeserve Home Page everytime you logged on
Freeserve is still about though, it was bought out by Wanadoo and is now Orange Broadband, so the legacy lives on