America On-line Is Now Free to Users of High-Speed Internet

America Online has stopped charging monthly fees to users of DSL and cable Internet. This was a major development this week which signals the end of an Internet era and brings relief to millions of AOL e-mail subscribers. The free service, however, does not include dial-up services.

Two years ago Yahoo and Google started ramping up their market share by offering free e-mail to Internet users at a level of service that equalled that of AOL. Since then AOL e-mail started losing thousands of e-mail subscribers. Google started the marketing war by offering one gigabyte of space for email. Yahoo responded by doing the same and the result is a lot of publicity which practically bypassed AOL.

AOL is allowing its subscribers who quit in the last two years to get their old email address back. If you still remember your password, you can log in to your old e-mail and access your inbox. I was very skeptical about this but tried it anyway. True enough, I was able to open my old AOL inbox which I had not opened for several months because i quit AOL in favor of free Yahoo services. My inbox had 371 messages in it.

AOL's strategy is to become one of the three top broadcasting networks in the Internet, the other two being Yahoo and Google. Just like the broadcasting networks of TV which are free to the public, like ABC, CBS, and NBC, but funded by advertisements, AOL will make its revenues through advertisements. This will mean AOL will lose a billion dollar income in e-mail subscription, but the strategy is considered sound because AOL is losing them to Google and Yahoo anyway if they don't make the move.

With this move AOL is expected to regain some lost grounds to Yahoo and Google. Millions of email users would like to regain their old addresses for free. The familiar AOL browser should also be welcome.

This development will probably hasten the dominance of Internet over television. News is available through AOL, Yahoo and Google at all times. I tested the following links and was able to get on-demand news:

For news through AOL - http://news.aol.com
For news through Yahoo - http://news.yahoo.com
For news through Google - http://news.google.com

Of the three I found news at AOL superior because it includes others providers of news such as CNN and Associated Press. This is, of course, a subjective feeling because I'm very familiar with the AOL style of interface.

In addition to dropping the monthly fees, America Online decided to drop its long name in favor of the shorter AOL. This allows the company to establish itself better outside of America by not using a nationalistic name. AOL USA, for instance, will have a counterpart in Europe called AOL Europe. This was considered by many analysts as a very smart move for the company.

source: Cox News Service, Dallas Morning News, staff research

posted August 6, 2006