OT> Aol to drop prices?

http://www.news.com/

AOL eyes discount Internet service

Even though I use cable access, I know many of you still use AOL. This
may be good news for you and might help save them.

Mark Ferrante
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By Jim Hu
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5090746.html

Story last modified October 14, 2003, 6:46 AM PDT

America Online is planning to launch a discount version of its
proprietary online service in an effort to tap into a cost-conscious
market for dial-up Internet access, according to a source familiar
with the company's plans.
AOL will call the service Netscape and will charge $9.95 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 e-mail 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 Optimized, 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.