America Online Faces Threat From Cheap Dial-Up Services

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, February 3, 2003 | JULIA ANGWIN

[TroutStalker]

America Online, fighting to stem plunging profits and management turmoil, is now facing a looming price war that threatens to undermine one of the most profitable segments of its Internet-access business.

Much attention has been focused on the AOL Time Warner Inc. unit's failure so far to make significant inroads in the growing market for high-speed Internet-access services known as broadband. But less noticed has been the rise of discount online services that are targeting the Internet behemoth's core base of "dial-up" Internet accounts with some success.

[anobjectivist]

I have always despised AOL, and MSN I despise almost nearly as so. I figured that sooner or later, people would realize that they can use the internet without all of the fluff and crap that AOL "provides."

Once again, competition benefits the consumer

[OperationFreedom]

The sooner they fall the better the world will be.

[szweig]

AOL is akin to training wheels on your first bicycle. It helps you learn how to maneuver, but once you've assimilated that knowledge is it as useless as t*ts on a bull...SSZ

[bribriagain]

I agree. The AOL business model just doesn/t make sense. It never did. And Time Warner should have known better.

[Galtoid]

I recently got off AOL, and discovered that an AOL membership is akin to belonging to a tough street gang. They make it nearly impossible to cancel. They're vicious.
Hate 'em.
Cancelled their ticket.

[dennisw]

http://www.access4cheap.com/services/

[dennisw]

http://www.access4less.net/IndexGo.htm

[goodnesswins]

MSN was about the same (trying to cancel) I despise both of them.

[AlexW]

I have a few friends that still use AOL, despite my teasing them about it.
They are also the only people online that do not seem to get all of my emails.
Is AOL email a problem for others?

[bribriagain]

AOL charged my family as much as $200 a month for their "service". This allowed them to artificially inflate their value to the investment community. The "good will" they thought they had was keeping suckers like you and me as paying customers.

[TroutStalker]

After using RoadRunner for going on two years, I could never go back to dialup. Always on, fast and everyone in the house can be online at the same time.

[Paul Atreides]

I know what you mean. I had AOL about seven years ago, and decided to move to another ISP. I could not find anywhere in the help section that would tell me how to cancel the account. I finally had to call them up in the support section and tell them I wanted to cancel the account. To this day, they still send me crap asking me back. It used to be annoying, but since they started sending it in the little metal boxes, I don't complain. I just keep the box and throw away the crap inside.

[Fresh Wind]

Is AOL email a problem for others?

LOL! I would say virtually all of my email delivery problems are with AOL users. What's worse, they take offense when you tell them they should move on to a reliable service.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Anyone who understand the five forces of industry could have seen this coming; a cheap replacement product for an expensive toy.

[AdA$tra]

What's worse, they take offense when you tell them they should move on to a reliable service.

It is as if they actually invented AOL and that it is a personal attack on them.

I am an IT professional. One of the most common questions I get from clients, friends and co-workers is about which Internet provider to use. My standard answer has been anything except AOL. I have all but stopped advising people now. Eight out of ten of the people I advised came back a week later saying they "on the Internet." I asked what provider they chose. Almost every time they say "AOL." Geez, why ask for advice if you aren't going to listen anyway.

[Aquinasfan]

Is AOL email a problem for others?

Yes. Attachments are a problem. Anything that's not a pdf gets converted to MIME (?) format and I can't open it on my Mac. Or maybe it's just me...

[Snerfling]

The AOL business model just doesn/t make sense

People in the industry have been predicting AOL's demise since the mid-90s. As it turns out, they were too early back then, but the fundamentals that drove such predictions are finally coming true.

It boils down to this: access and content are two separate issues. AOL combined the two, to its temporary advantage; however, as more people become familiar with the Net, they soon realize (1) cable/DSL from a local provider is cheaper than dial-up if you consider that many people got a 2nd phone line, and (2) Google, Yahoo, et al are all you need as a home page.

Since the content side is so dynamic, peoples' favorite bookmarked sites are constantly changing. Small chance that one entity (AOL) could consitently keep hitting home runs to be everyones' favored 'go to sites'.

[theDentist]

It's nice to see that AOL (or as we used to call 'em: A#####ES On Line) is subject to the free-market pressures.

[Hank Rearden]

AOL is akin to training wheels on your first bicycle.

AOHell is welded-on training wheels. No matter how experienced a user gets with the Internet, the AOL frontend nonsense stays in the way at all times. You have to get out the cutting torch to free yourself.

I'm so glad I never got sucked into its maw.