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Microsoft Soft-Pedals Dialup

Posted by timothy on from the where-the-money-isn't dept.

twitter writes "The NYT reports Bill Gates surrender of dial-up Internet access. 'We stayed in the access business for a while, and then we decided it wasn't for us.' $314 million in advertising yielded $300 million in losses last year." Microsoft's dialup service isn't disappearing, but the company is scaling it back and ending the expensive marketing campaign. This leaves exactly how many big players in the dialup market? Dialup is still the only option in many places.

3 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Does this include MSN Broadband? by Limburgher · · Score: 4, Funny

    I only ask because it offers some of the same performance and reliability features of dialup: Dropouts, poor speed, and an inability to use all necessary ports. . .

    --

    You are not the customer.

  2. Re:Remember... by porp · · Score: 5, Funny

    So you're saying that in 1992 you had a 56k modem? You also must've had a time machine and traveled to the future to buy it. But you still wouldn't be able to use it since no ISPs would've supported the damned thing. Hell, v.34 wasn't around until 1993 or so. And I'm not even sure when 16650A UARTs were first adopted.

    porp

  3. Re:decentralization of acess is fine by me. by Hythlodaeus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dial-up can move about four bucks' worth of music downstream an hour.

    Or by the RIAA's estimation, $20,000.

    --
    For great justice.