AOL loses more than 1 million dial-up customers last year.

[Rick_EE]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10134-2003Jun3.html?nav=hptop_tb

[Kevin]

No surprise there! Do they actually expect customers to keep fishing out $23.95/mo. when they can get unlimited dial-up access from local providers for about $9.99? Then there's services like MetConnect which (if you can actually get through) offer 100% free dial-up. I see more and more people ditching AOL for the AIM & Internet Explorer combo which costs absolutely nothing to use.

[MikeW]

I said this would happen a while back. I have both Cox High Speed Internet and AOL. I had AOL for years and wasn't eligible for those $400.00 rebates w/3 year commitment. I purchased a laptop at Circuit City when CompuServe made the $400 deal. They switched me to AOL (at my request) after the first year. I've now got 2 years and 4 months completed. AOL will be gone in 8 months. I've got three teens who feel they can't live without AOL, but they'll have to deal with it in March 2004! I'm sure that as more of these 3 year deals expire, the exodus from AOL will continue.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Kevin
No surprise there! Do they actually expect customers to keep fishing out $23.95/mo. when they can get unlimited dial-up access from local providers for about $9.99? Then there's services like MetConnect which (if you can actually get through) offer 100% free dial-up. I see more and more people ditching AOL for the AIM & Internet Explorer combo which costs absolutely nothing to use.

I was speaking to a friend who said he would not get rid of AOL because his wife is used to it and he dosen't want to retrain her to use non-AOL sw. Many people consider it worth the extra money. And need more than price to jump (they may be thinking that they are paying a worthy premium for it's ease of use) Rational thought has no place here, so lack of logic may rule.

As for the free dialup, we have all been thru that before, like you said impossible to connect to and those companies did not last very long (The free dialup business model is a pretty lame one unless they somehow differentiated how they do things this time around???) are 100% free dialup going to charge Advertisers to broadcast on the popup-boxes galore or will they personally spam you 100 times a day, not a very good business model

What I do see happening is if MSN starts under cutting AOL, those needing/wanting the hand holding may jump to MSN or if cable modem prices drop some people might be swayed to a less expensive cable modem connection

[Mike123abc]

DSL is now $29.95 a month... http://www01.sbc.com/DSL_new/content_new/1,,18,00.html?SRC=http%253A%252F%252Fsw51%252Esbc% 252Ecom%252Fctrk%252Fp%252Egif%253F&EI=20030604182230C&E=L&CI=&UI=&EL=&TI=&RI=&RD=

The squeeze is on, DSL is going after the low end of the market since they pretty much lost the faster speeds to cable. I bet soon you will see DSL for $24.99 that will kill AOL.

[Mark Holtz]

Check the fine print for the $29.95 DSL. It's "Offer requires a one-year term agreement. After the expiration of this term agreement, the then-current month-to-month or applicable term price will apply."

[marko]

DSL has been getting smart by offerering lower rates for lower speed. Got to figure, a 512/128 downlod speed for $30 is not all that bad, when you pay 24 for aol.

[Mike123abc]

Originally posted by Z'Loth
Check the fine print for the $29.95 DSL. It's "Offer requires a one-year term agreement. After the expiration of this term agreement, the then-current month-to-month or applicable term price will apply."

That may be true, you might have to sign up for another year. But, as you see by following the link I posted you are not out any $$ if you quit after your year commit. You could probably commit to another year and keep the same or cheaper.

Telcos need $$ now. The number of hard wire lines is starting to drop pretty quickly. Cable modems are big competition. A cable modem probably eliminates the modem line. Also, many companies are starting to pick up on internet phones to eliminate hardwire lines. Individuals are going cellular only. This is big at colleges now where it is cheaper to just use a cell phone than to pay to hook up a phone where you will disconnect in a few months.

Cable tends to be a better service than DSL, so they are cutting the price of DSL a lot to get back the hardwired business. I expect the cost of DSL to go to 20-25 in the end to wipe out most dialup.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Mike123abc


That may be true, you might have to sign up for another year. But, as you see by following the link I posted you are not out any $$ if you quit after your year commit. You could probably commit to another year and keep the same or cheaper.

Not that I've seen, original price kicks in no matter what at the end of the agreement, no resigning to get lower price. Just like Dish or the Cable companies, unless you have some complaint about service and get a credit, when your "Special Rate" is up you're just a regular customer. I'm even ineligible for most of those deals with Earthlink DSL (with Dell and Dish) existing customer = NO DEAL even if I recommit for x-many months/years

Their just hoping that people will selectively forget that the good rate is just temporary and not think about the future REAL rate. And seeing some of the people posting about going back to cable, they always just say "Cable is 1/2 the cost of D* or E*", but they leave off "but only for 1st 6 months, then it is $x more than D* or E* and after 18 months I'll actually have paid more overall"

[BobMurdoch]

I have Cablevision's Optimum Online Cable Modem service AND I keep AOL's dial up. The cable modem is dropping connections a lot, so I keep the AOL as a backup. I know a lot of people are dumping their service though......

[music_beans]

Anyone hate AOL?

http://www.aolsucks.org

---------------------------------

Anyone like (or use) Netscape?

http://www.netscape.com

[bills976]

Most cable companies that I've seen don't require the 1 year contract... usually you can cancel anytime you want without penalty. DSL for some reason usually requires the 1 year deal. And you're absolutely right about the DSL companies now trying to cut into AOL's subscriber base. Verizon is advertising like crazy here in the NY DMA. However, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the cable companies join the act, as limiting upload/download speed is a very nice and easy way to control bandwidth on an oversold network. $29.99 for a 500/100 connection is a BARGAIN.

[Bob Haller]

Well I have AOL powered by verison DSL and it works great! For a time I had verison DSL:( Idiots tried to hack my computer. constant port attacks, virus in e mail, besides the AOL use interface for mail and such is awesome. I hated IEs clunky arrangement. A good friend says the same thing.

Given al this AOLs tech support *&*()$#% !!! If you REALLY need help select disconnect and the rep there will likely know the answer and get you all fixed up fast. Just for selecting that they will give you a couple free months. Even if you arent mad. Disco reps tend to be the best trained and experienced in any organization.

Besides tech help AOL is getting hurt because oif the lack of high speed access. ALL providers should be required to make it oopen access.

I haavent tried cable, I will never go there again.

[waydwolf]

    The high speed wave of the future is likely going to be 802.11whatever(g, likely) as soon as a more stable and secure access method can be achieved. There's already one company I know of that makes outdoor 802.11b access points in the same style metal cases as cable amps and nodes with strand hooks and all. With an outdoor DOCSIS modem for each one, a cable system could give wireless high speed access across their entire system without needing to install a modem at anyone's house.

    The rumor continues that more than one MSO is strongly considering it.

[Jacob S]

I also think the cheap $10 local access or even the $15-20 local access is getting a lot of the aol customers as the customers want local service in which is more reliable and faster. Getting high speed internet for just a tad more is wiping out a lot of the customers as well. Looks like AOL will needs to have a price drop to do any good rather than keeping on increasing prices. I see where they have gotten into the DSL market now as well.

What about this thing I heard a little while back that will allow the internet to increase its speed like 10,000 times or something what it is now. I heard this a while back and if this is true then dial up access would be very very fast even, more fast than the fastest internet connection now, but the faster connections would also be that much more faster but not needed unless you want to do some major things with it. If that were to happen then dial up access may get popular again.

[Bob Haller]

I wouldnt want to tie up my phone line again.

[Mark Holtz]

The only reason why I have a phone line at home is for connecting to work. Period. It is NOT used at all for data. For my voice calls, I use my cell phone.

[Jacob S]

I just seen an AOL commercial where they have a new feature where you would not miss your phone calls. It comes up on the screen just like buzzme and callwave has included in their service price. That makes the price for their internet service more worthwhile since it usually costs like ~$4-$6. Perhaps extra features is what is needed to keep and gain more customers.

[Steve Mehs]

I believe that service from AOL carries an additional fee, but they give subs 6 months free or somthing, or that's how the commercial made it sound.

[Jacob S]

I remember the commercial stating 12 months of that service when I heard it earlier today. Perhaps they are letting you try it out for the 12 month period then charge an extra 6 after the end of the year. Maybe one could talk them into keeping it free to keep their service after the year is up.

If they would have more to show for the monthly charge with more features then it would make it more worthwhile.

[PSB]

I LOVE AOL, and I dont care what any one says : ) If it were not for AOL I would be still in the dirty streets of the UK. I met my wife on AOL and came here to live soon after, and everything has just got better ever since. I use AOL plus for satellite, its a one way system and works like a dream, it seems to be getting faster each time I check the speed, maybe more people are quiting the satellite service and I know they are not selling it any more. It works great for broadband, I watch alot of TV from the BBC on the computer and I listen to www.totalrock.com in great quality stereo! There was a fault with the satellite a few months ago and I was lost with out my high speed connection. The best part is the multi tasking you can do with broadband, I can be listening to the radio, playing a game and have a few other things running in the background (Callwave...) I used to install cable modems so I know all about how much better they are but this works for me right now. :rolleyes:

[Steve Mehs]

If anything, I think having the service cost extra justifies broadband even more. With a bill upward near $30 for the internet plus the call pop up, you can get broadband for not much more and have the benefit of high speed Internet access and not have to worry about the phone line.