My ISP gives me free Usenet access. It's the only reason I put up with their shitty speeds.
I think most ISPs do (BT certainly does) but you only get a certain number of connections, and the servers you connect to may not hold on to files for as long as pay-to-access ones do.
Pretty sure over here that stopped long ago!
Yeah same deal. I get less that 100 days of retention and 5 connections. But it's unlimited.
I vaguely remember reading something about providing access to Usenet as being one of the requirements of being an ISP. Though I could be mis-remembering things.