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AOL Not Alone In Subscriber Decline
E-Rock-23 writes "Our registration-hungry friends at the New York Times are running this article with a few more details on the AOL Subscriber Decline, covered in a recent /. post. And it looks like they aren't alone, as Earthlink and MSN are experiencing similar troubles. The article cites a major reason being that users "are buying broadband services offered by cable and telephone companies." Looks like broadband is finally gaining some significant ground with home users..."
Yeah, broadband is a nice upgrade. But I bet more people disconnected due to money than the need for speed.
Method of processing duck feet
....the big 3 ISPs have seen the writing on the wall for a LONG time, yet they continued to expand their POTS infrastructure...ESPECIALLY earthlink. They better figure it out really freaking quick that when users find out that they can work just a little harder to find the same content through a non-branded ISP, they are going to drop their asses in droves. Looks like they already are. AOL has the potential infrastructure through Time Warner Cable...Earthlink has been able to finesse some cable sharing deals, but MSN going the DSL only branding route is going to lose if they don't sign some cable sharing deals.
I don't get it, are they surprised? AOL costs 25$ a month. In my area you can get get DSL for 38$ so I don't think it should come as a surprise that people would go for a connection ten times as fast that didn't require the worst designed software on earth for an extra 13$. AOL has been robbing people for the past 5 years, they kept their prices jacked up because they could and had a corner on the market.But I doubt AOL is really noticing too much of a hurt, because I have noticed idiots who get broadband and still pay for AOL as well. People are dumb and that will keep AOL and MSN in business for a long time.
Anonymous Cowards - Oh God, How I hate you
Although I was with a local ISP, the cost of the 2nd phone line was $25.00 and my ISP was $15.00. Broadband through the cable company was $40.00 so it was a complete wash for a huge increase over 56k, why would I want to stay on dialup? They can thank all the baby bells for not wanting to go the "last mile" to give people a choice of providers.
As a former AOL employee, I still have an AOL account even though I find the service has ticked me off more than a few times but my wife can't really change her email address at this tmie. So we are like so many who just are waiting for the right time.
You can't stop the future, you can only simulate it by stopping progress
sign up for AOL. He can't afford broadband (yet). He just started using the internet. As soon as he finds the pr0n movies for download, I'm sure he'll drop his smoking habbit so he can get broadband and pick up a new (better?) habbit.
With streaming content becoming more available and higher quality, the days of dial-up are numbered. I'm suprised apartment buildings don't pool together and get a T1 into the buildling and provide internet to all apartments.
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Free your mind.
Everytime a NYT story is posted on /., new registrations there go through the roof!
Thats why I bought a domain. My email address is permanent regardless of my provider. Changing emails is a real pain. ISPs rely on that - so they give great introductory offers, but raise the rates once they have you sucked in. With my own domain, I can changes ISPs painlessly.
In the UK, most people who have broadband service receive it either through as ISP, who in turn use either BT (DSL) or one of the two cable operators, NTL and Telewest (Cable Modem/STB). A lot, like me, probable go direct through the service provider (in my case, NTL).
AOL UK has recently started offering broadband services, through BT, but I've yet to see any figures on how much success they've had with it. MSN UK haven't made any moves on that front yet.
-MT.
I was one of EarthLink's earlier subscribers, and appreciated its services, which were quite reliable.
My business needs required something faster than dial-up, so when EarthLink offered DSL, I applied. At the time, however, DSL wasn't available for my part of the city (a medium-large midwestern one--think race cars), so Time Warner Cable's RoadRunner service was my only option.
Today, as a result of court agreements and such, EarthLink and AOL can provide their services through cable and DSL options, but the carriers (the cable and phone companies that own these lines) don't advertise the options much, from what I see.
I use Comcast High-Speed service today, which works OK, but they have tech support that's about as bright as a bag of coal.
I agree that the Internet was a fascination for some, and now a relatively expensive one to those who don't use it much. So, many of the users who've signed off are probably the "sightseers."
High-speed access is still a bit too expensive for most, despite the faster speeds. Paying twice to 2.5 times as much isn't a strong marketing point.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
The closed nature of their networks mean that independent ISP's (even the monster Earthlink) will no longer be able to compete with phone companies. Here in CT, the nearest competitor to SBC DSL has to charge at least $20 more than the service from the phone company. They rent the DSL services from the telco, making it impossible for them to compete. The days of infinite ISP choices are sadly over.
www.lonseidman.com
I think the broadband push is one determining factor in changing from the powerhouse ISP's, but I also think users are *growing up* from AOL/MSN to using only their preferred browser. I consider AOL/MSN users to be novice and prefer to use these ISP's because of ease and simplicity. Now these users are gaining knowledge of the "internet" and have the ability to *surf* themselves without AOL/MSN pushing content to them directly.
string.Empty();
isn't what is used to be.
.swf files via E-Mail to 20 different friends and the like.
Here in Germany you can get a 128kBit up / 768 kBit down async line. The best a normal household can aford is 192 kBit up / 1536 kBit down async.
The problem is that as bandwidth goes up, quality of the net goes down.
I heard people saying: "Why should I not place these 2MB images on my website? It's downloaded with my DSL line in seconds."
And don't even try to tell these people what a thumbnail is.
It's just one example but you can find more of these. People sending 15 MB
SQL Slammer won't have had the effect of broadband coming to every home.
See my blog for my free opinions.
Ok, so with the number of cable broadband subscribers going up, it makes sense that the cable companies can finally (hopefully) start collecting on those economies of scale. So when will we start to see the price stabilize? Or are we stuck with endless rate increases a la cable television?
I've already given up on DSL from the phone company (Good luck getting competitition-inducing rates from those guys.)
IMHO community run broadband (see this link) and other means like this are the only hope we have of keeping prices reasonable.
Erp, did I just come out in favor of regulating Internet pricing?!?
With the coming of wireless internet, it even becomes simpler to share the net (you don't even have to dig or drill a line in the ground or wall for your ethernet cable). I think this also has some impact on the decline of dial-up subscriptions.
I work for a small, privatly owned ISP. I do see alot of our older dial up customers going over the broadband, but more and more, they are cancelling because of lack of money. Even at around $20 a month or so many people see internet access as something extra not something they need.
Maybe this tred will turn around but I doubt it. Even if these customers do get back on firm ground, I see them going with broadband via cable, phone company, or even the electric company long before comming back to a dial up.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Since I work alot with the public and their computers let me tell you what I think the biggest reason for the decline is.
90% of the houses I go to are for people who are upgrading and now want two computers. (Their old one + their new one) AOL requires a $20 subscription fee + more money for multiple screens and though you can have broadband and still use AOL they still charge an aol usage fee.... *yawn*
So they upgrade to broadband because that 56k stuff has to go and because it can easily service two computers, they buy a router, they leave AOL but download the messenger to stay in touch with their buddies. They migrate to using Outlook Express (cringe) But they also have norton so I guess thats ok... sort of.
Then they also cancel AOL + Second Phone Line and broadband is about the same price. Some even cancel their phone and do VoIP. (Its rare but there are some really good offers out there that even offer wireless phonejacks that you can sticky to your wall or plug into an outlet...)
They've got 3 call centers now instead of 7.
Basically, you'll NEVER get through to them now.
20% of their workforce has just been laid off.
Atlanta-based access provider EarthLink (Quote, Company Info) on Tuesday announced it would shut down call center operations in four U.S. cities and lay off about 1,300 employees as part of a cost-cutting move.
With its dial-up subscriber base dwindling, the nation's third largest ISP said it would close its entire call center operations in Dallas, Texas; Sacramento, Calif.; and Seattle, Wash. Additionally, a tech support and customer service center in Pasadena, Calif. would also be shuttered in the latest belt-tightening move.
"We estimate the streamlining of our call centers will reduce annualized operating expenses by more than $20 million," the company said in a brief statement.
You can't say boradband via cable companies has a doomed future based on your singular personal experience, it just seemed ludicrous.
Ultimately, I think both technologies have about equal potential, with one beating the other depending on where you are.
DSL is offered by companies that typically have more experience in offering high-bandiwdth internet connections, so service and reliability I think is indeed, mostly better with DSL on average. However, as Cable companies have learned their lessons, it becomes harder and harder to distinguish the two. DSL still seems to typically offer better latency (around my area, at least), but cable services offer better throughput.
To home consumers, the fine details don't make much of a difference. Availability makes all the difference. I can't get DSL at any decent rate. None of my family can get it at all. I do, and my family could, all have cable modem at 2 megabit downstream, 768k up. In addition to that, a sort of unintended benefit of cable modem service is that there is a good chance the installer won't bother with a video filter and you get free cable with the net connection. I know, not a fair comparison because cable companies hate this, but realistically speaking, it must be considered.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
For example my mother was paying $20/month for a second phone line and $20/month for her ISP. We got rid of her second phone line and the ISP for a cable modem that costs the same, $40/month.
Another phenomenon that phone companies and ISP's have to worrying about is people not having a landline at all. Most people I'm friends with (age 22-28) do not have a landline, but instead use a cell phone exclusively. There are lots of benefits of using a cell phone only. For people with roommates, you don't have to worry about splitting up the phone bill or dealing with calling cards. On a cost basis, I would rather pay $75 for a really good cell plan than a landline with no long distance for $40 and a cheap cell plan for $35.
Most of the people who I know who use a cell phone exclusively are also cable modem subscribers. Those who are not, just use work for personal Internet access. Of the people I do know with landlines, most of them have to have them in order to dial-in to their company's network because of the absence of a Internet VPN.
I've been landline free for three years now, with no regrets.
Most people who have the option wait to do some of their surfing at work on a fast connection. For people who don't have that option, they must pay for a faster connection or accept that some web content and services will be barely usable or unavailable.