The British Council sponsored a workshop on UK approaches to virtual teaching. four different applications of online delivery of courses were explored through presentations from expert practitioners at each of the universities. A partnership model was represented by The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI); an evolutionary model by the UK Open University (OU); a brokerage model by the eUniversity (eU) and a local study centre model by the University for Industry (Ufi). By studying these different models in turn, insights into common problems were gained which this paper aims to outline. These issues are: how to maintain or improve quality of teaching in the online environmen;. how to blend online and traditional media for the optimum mix; and how to support students studying online courses.

This paper analyzes competition between two Internet service providers (ISPs), either or both of which may choose to offer multiple service classes. In the model analyzed, a social planner who maximizes the total benefit from network usage and a profit maximizing monopolist will both form multiple service classes; but two networks competing to maximize profits will not. The reason is that a competition effect always outweighs a segmentation effect. Networks wish to offer multiple service classes in order to increase user benefits and hence charge higher prices. In doing so, however, they effectively increase the number of points in the service quality range at which they compete. Consequently, in any equilibrium competitive outcome, both ISPs offer a single service class. The analysis has particular implications for the Paris Metro pricing (PMP) proposal, which is considered in depth in this paper, since it suggests that PMP may not be viable under competition.