Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Soft-Pedals Dialup
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.
If the majority of the country can only get on through mom-and-pop or local dialups, that will make it much harder for Big Content to place chokeholds on how everyone accesses and uses content. If 90% of the country used AOL, MSN, and AT&T, we'd all be screwed- you'd see complete blocks on all music downloads the moment that happened.
IAAL,BIANLY
How come I haven't heard of it?
Cheers,
RoadkillBunny
Who cares about "big players" anyway? Over the years, I tried compuserv, aol, and earthlink, and I always had better luck with local ISPs. They were cheaper, had faster access, and it was easier to get a -real- tech support person on the phone. They also didn't insist on installing their version of a browser and a "remote help agent" which wanted to sit in the systray all the time. The local guys had a configuration cd which simply changed network settings, and that was it. They included a bunch of other useful apps on the cd as well, but nothing I ever installed (since I had it already).
I would always rather do business with somebody local.
Dialup is a local service, and local providers have always provided the best and cheapest connections.
I don't know how much the dial-up competition keeps away broadband. Dial-up will, at least in the forseeable future, remain significantly less expensive than broadband, because it doesn't require hardware. At the same time the cost of a second phone line and Internet will generally probably be about the same as a brodband connection. I'd think the main factor keeping broadband out of areas is just the immediate lack of the required technology in that area probably coupled with either a risk of profitablity, or just the inability to currently deploy the needed hardware. I've had to work in several areas with large commercial sectors where broadband would be immediately seized upon (and made profitable for the provider), but it's not, or wasn't available yet. I'd think one of the other big reasons would be that, in general, broadband is provided by companies which don't focus on it. It's provided by cable companies or telcos whose main business focal point is the primary service they provide.
I don't try to be right, I just try to make people think
Here is yet another example of Microsoft NOT being an invincible force in any market they damn well please. Kinda like UltimateTV, MSN Messenger (heck, MSN itself), Xbox, etc. Unless they're giving it away for free with a Windows purchase, don't assume Microsoft offering will just magically take over a market.
Mod parent fluff down please.
28.8k modem announced in mid-Feb 1993
56Kbps (v.90) didn't come out for several years after that.
I could understand this maybe, oh, two or three years ago- but not now. I run a dialup ISP that markets in these rural areas that have been previously without broadband, and the few places that it doesn't make sense for one of the wireless players to show up and take all of my business, are the same places where I can't even set up access because of the cost of installing even a fractional T1 is over $1K / month.
I guess I'm a mom and pop dialup, or at least just a one man operation with outsourced support, but I think that portion of my business will have to RIP within a few years with Netzero, wired broadband, and 802.11 networks chipping away at the customer base.
My latest market that I had to pull out my access numbers was, get this, a town with 300 people that one of the wireless broadband providers decided to set up a node in. I went from 200 customers to 20 within a matter of 6 months.
I'd rather just bank the profits and sell off all the equipment before I try and protect my markets by forcing users into contracts. Perhaps its time to just get out of that business entirely, and use my "billing week" to more productive ends.
I apparently forgot that sig != uptime...
It isn't the resources, it's the rights. Who has rights to string another set of wires on the telephone poles?
As it turns out, whoever the government is in the area. We've got an ISP here who is stringing wire in the townships, who will give them permission.
These folks get nice DSL, and a new local phone company and great long distance reates at about $50 month.
Once they go into incorporated villages and cities, it's no go. SBC has a nice conference presentation and dinner for the elected, and then ISP access is legislatively denied.
For mass-marketted dialup services, the soft departure of MSN from dialup will be a big hit and a boon for the other mass-market services like AOL, Earthlink, and friends--but don't forget the dialup resellers. It's still a profitable and growing business. I pay $9.95/month for unlimited dialup access through a popular USENET provider who resells the dialup service of Megapop.
Kriston