Provider’s Gift to Best Net Users: a Bit of Free Time

You can earn frequent flier miles from airlines, frequent buyer discounts from your local supermarket and even dollars toward a down payment on a new car by using your Ford- or GM-backed credit card.

So why not free Internet time for being a frequent browser?

That’s what First Internet Alliance thought, so the San Clemente-based Internet services provider did a deal with an East Coast marketing company, Freeride Media LLC. The result is a “free access” program that gives First Alliance clients credit toward free time on the Net when they visit certain advertisers’ Web sites, take part in online marketing surveys or buy sponsors’ products at the grocery store.

Online information is available at https://www.fia.net/freeride.

First Internet, which provides direct service in 165 cities and has franchises in 40 other locations, charges $19.95 a month for unlimited access. The points clients earn from the free-access program go toward reducing the monthly bill.

While First Internet is the only Orange County-based service provider affiliated with Freeride, there are local competitors with the same free-access program. Freeride’s home page (https://www.freeride.com) lists four that serve the 714 area code, including Pasadena-based Earthlink Network.

John O’Dell can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com