AOL will call the service Netscape and will charge $9.95 (£5.97) a month for unlimited dial-up access, the source said. That is a far cry from AOL's standard price of $23.90. The service is currently more of a concept than a developed product and will not be made available until early 2004, the source said.
Unlike current versions of AOL, the Netscape service will be a significantly smaller file download and will lose many of the bells and whistles that are standard on AOL, such as its instant messaging software and chat rooms, the source said. Rather, the Netscape service -- which takes its name from the browser company that AOL bought several years ago -- will offer a single email account, search powered by Google and some news links, the source added.
News of the Netscape service was first reported in the online version of The Wall Street Journal.
For AOL, the launch of a new Internet service provider would be an attempt to address the current pressures facing the online giant. For the past two quarters, AOL has watched the number of its core dial-up subscribers slip as members have defected to faster broadband services or to cheaper discount ISPs such as United Online's NetZero and Juno.
In the last quarter, AOL lost 846,000 members, some of them to broadband or discount ISPs. The bulk of the lost members were people using AOL at discount prices and no longer counted as full-paying members.
Meanwhile, AOL has shifted its attention to the growing number of households upgrading their dial-up connections to broadband. Its latest version, AOL 9.0 Optimised, focuses on higher-bandwidth features, such as streaming video, spam filters, parental controls and enhanced instant messaging.
AOL is trying to sell version 9.0 as a $14.95-per-month add-on to people who are using an outside broadband service but want AOL's content. The company still sells broadband access, but the business is not as profitable as its dial-up service, given the expense of leasing digital subscriber lines.
Talkback
I think if aol wants to compete with broadband and keep their price they should try and join up with a company like artera turbo and get higher speeds with data compaction and picture compaction similar to netzero high speed or try and push their broadband internet because its not in many areas in the US Wilmington Delaware they should drop their price because 23.90 is too much for just dial up i cant even play games against other people online with aol because its too slow and now people wont event let me play because they know i will make the game laggy
Thanks for the information. My 3 year contract with CompuServe runs out Jan. 12, 2004. (I got a deal when I bought my computer 3 years ago.)
I'm semi-retired and looking to lower my expenses where I can. I still need unlimited access and I sell books on Amazon and Half.com. I tried NetZero
and my modem was the wrong one they said. I'm not a techie so I'm not getting into that. I had to cancel NetZero.
Any thoughts?
i think aol would be making a wise move i really like aol but had to change service because i could not afford the serviceineeded something more affordable ias i said i reallywould go back if it became more affordabli really did like what they had