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AOL Dumping Some Broadband
unsupported writes "Just days after news that AOL will be breaking up into 4 business units, AOL is telling existing broadband customers in 9 Southern states to find a new carrier. This news comes after AOL stopped selling broadband services earlier this year. AOL plans a similar phase out of existing broadband customers for the rest of the country over the next year."
AOL has been losing customers like crazy - in this case, they just have an alternate reason to leave!
We've had some really great times, which is why it hurts me to say this, but I'm dumping you. Don't cry! It's not you, it's me, really. I want to move in some new directions, and I don't think you can go with me. You'll find someone new, I'm sure of it. Everyone I know says "Broadband is great." and they mean it. I know it hurts right now, but it will fade in time.
Love,
AOL
Welcome! You've got [NO CARRIER]
I miss the commercials of people/things going really fast. Too bad they were all a waste.
The affected states are Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
They probably just got tired of getting paid in squirrel pelts.
So AOL got into broadband b/c their dialup business was getting spanked by it... and now they are dropping the broadband and riding the 56k modem wave out? WTF???
Good! Dial-Up is the wave of the future anyways!
Because we all know that broadband is going nowhere, dial up is the future!
Do you think that the people getting dumped will also receive CDs offering 3 months free dial-up with AOL? I'd be pissed.
1) Alienate customers from an indeustry segment that's actually gaining customers (as opposed to dialup service that's losing customers)
2) ???
3) Profit!!! All well and good I suppose, less Newbs out there cluttering crap up.
...in bed
It's amazing that people would put up with AOL, but time and time again people have shown that no matter how badly they're treated, they'll hang on to bad relationships (including bad business relationships) without thinking of how bad it could really get.
like AOL's the one phasing out.
Why don't they dump their 56k modem users in support for 300 baud modems while they're at it.
Interesting...usually when a business restructures itself it does it to acuire more business. And not to stop providing services. What's driving this change? Move into media, providing digital content?
We all generally have the opinion that AOL is "Evil", but if I had to list ONE GOOD THING about them, it would be that even if I am in Antarctica, I could get a dialup provider via AOL. I think that is the reason for a LOT of their original customer base. When people move to broadband, they probably find that AOL isnt the "internet", and simply leave. It lost its appeal, so this is just AOL going back to doing the one thing they are good for.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Let me get this right... AOL, hwo is losing customers, is closing down segments of their broadband operations while keeping dialup?
They better know what they're doing... broadband is the future. Although there are still many people on dialup, it's not a good direction to move the company.
Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
Interesting how they chose to redirect all of their broadband customers to Bellsouth instead of their parent company's broadband provider, Time Warner Cable
With everybody preferring broadband over dial up , it seems suicidal to give up all capability in broadband, split and concentrate more on dial up !! Shouldnt AOL being doing things the other way round and try to build up presence in broadband market ?
I would think they would be getting rid of dial up connections, not the broadband. More and more people are getting away from 56k, why are they removing services that the consumers are demanding? It doesn't make any sense!
"Just days after news that AOL will be breaking up into 4 business units, AOL is telling existing broadband customers in 9 Southern states to find a new carrier. This news comes after AOL stopped selling broadband services earlier this year. AOL plans a similar phase out of existing broadband customers for the rest of the country over the next year."
And in related news, AOL is dead!
..that you might be holding onto. By the end of 2005 they will be gone. How AOL purchased but never really "owned" Time Warner will be one of economic history's great term paper topics.
Netzero (and Juno?) will be the winners in dial-up.
Oh, and MS will get out of the Net provider business.
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
So we all know dialup became unprofitable years ago...
:)
Does this mean broadband is no better thanks to all the competition?
Bet they will get into wireless just in time for that to tank too
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
It's not like AOL was actually providing broadband or anything.
They ought to move to a real ISP, like OSTG broadband!
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
For like $10 a month, but now they just won't be selling their own broadband. I think they're trying position themselves as a content provider for broadband, rather than a broadband ISP. Amazingly, there are people that will want it.
in other news, teresa heinz-kerry, wife of former presidential candidate john kerry, is now the principle share-holder of AOL corp.
AOL != broadband
Never has been. Never will be.
nice to know that dreams really CAN come true....
and as AOL itself says "GOODBYE!!"
Did you know you can be apathetic to apathy? Not that I give a shit...
They too were unable to see financially more than a few months into the future. I was sorry when they killed the program, though, because at least they provided near-flawless speed and service. In that case customers were also directed towards BellSouth, who have since managed to provide inferior service over the same physical lines.
I'm wondering what specifically about providing quality broadband is so difficult.
This doesn't make much sense to me. Doesn't the Time Warner half want to push hi-bandwidth content through to its AOL subscribers? It's much more difficult to do this via 56k. I really don't know much about the merger other than it's not doing so well. But it seems like the two sides aren't really talking.
Actually the current article isn't about the breakup, it's specifically about AOL dumping their broadband service.
The reason [aside from the fact that they suck and really amount to traveling the information super highway with training wheels dragging] we dropped our AOL subscription was their incessant advertising to get us to upgrade to aol broadband which they have never delivered in my area. Broadband did become available [some neighborhoods get DSL, we have comcast cable internet pretty much throughout my metro area]. Bottom line: Broadband is killing AOL in my part of New England. If Aol is dumping broadband, its going to hurt them badly in the long run. Even if BB service is costly for them to set up...everybody else [e.g. comcast] raises their rates and gets away with it...breaking even later is better than having no customers.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
And I wouldn't have to use such a godforsaken slow connection when I visited my parents...
- A
Normally the customers try like hell to get unsubscribed from AOL - apparently, the tables have turned!
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
I've had AOL DSL for almost 3 years now. It was originally offered in my area before Verizon got their act together. When Verizon finally did roll out service, it was 2x as expensive as the AOL one I already had. I thought it was ironic that Verizon was providing the PHY services for AOL anyway ...
Verizon's prices have dropped, but AOL's rates have stayed pretty rock solid. It doesn't take a genius to recognize that AOL isn't moving with the market. It's possible that the co-lo contractual requirements are financially prohibitive, too.
I believe Verizon is rolling out their FTTH serice in my area now, so I think it's time to check out the cost for a big pipe (bypassing the assmunch local cable company every opportunity I get.)
Just the other day I got an AOL for Verizon DSL package in the mail.
I think AOL is getting rid of their own native broadband providers, and plan to try and piggyback onto other ISPs.
Ie; I pay Comcast for Broadband, and AOL for content.
Which is probably a smart move for them, they don't need to maintain all the infrastructure, and people will still sign up who feel AOL improves their online experience.
And stuff your elitism, there are plenty of folks who would rather remember an AOL keyword than a FQDN, IP address, or the odd combination of words they used in Google to get the page they wanted.
Isn't this 'old' news?
So, this means AOL customers might have to switch to RoadRunner?
And this is bad news because ? :)
At least less people will be complaining about the AOL virus/
The Broadband that these people have is ordered via AOL and billed via the broadband provider. The reality is that AOL is telling these folks that they need to establish a direct broadband relationship with Bell South rather than trough AOL. This way the customer brings their own access. It's really better for the user since they won't have to call AOL for broadband connectivity issues. Once the user has Broadband that doesn't requie the use of the AOL client they'll realize that they don't need AOL.
WTF? Who blew it?
Regardless of what people say about the economy, there's a lot of disposable income out there. Surely they could've sold a broadband content service to other people at a bargain, and become the dominant provider like they were for dial-up. Now all that's left is dial-up, fading away...
I guess maybe AOL should get used to finding its home in the lower-middle class bracket... too bad they coulda been a contender elsewhere.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
Advantage of owning a private network. IIRC they sold their customer base to a competitor during the past insanity. They (IBM) kept the world wide infrastructure.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Yup, simply visionary.
sigs, as if you care.
Now, you have AOL, offering the same service, but tacking on $15 more a month, and they can't find a way to make this a worthwhile component of their business?!? They have a $15 buffer over what competitors can make profitable, AND presumably lower churn since AOL customers seem less educated about their options and thus less likely to switch. They're bleeding dial-up customers like crazy, and now are shuttering the one fragment of their business that had a prayer of attracting customers looking to leave dial-up. They'd make better business decisions flipping coins.
Seen any BadMarketing lately?
This doesn't make much sense to me. Doesn't the Time Warner half want to push hi-bandwidth content through to its AOL subscribers? It's much more difficult to do this via 56k. I really don't know much about the merger other than it's not doing so well. But it seems like the two sides aren't really talking.
On the contrary, I think that with the merger AOL Broadband is in some ways redundant. Without entering into the discussion of whether online services themselves are unnecessary/dying, I'd like to point out that Quantum Link, AOL's predecessor, lasted for a very long time with a very small customer base, but was eventually phased out when AOL's next-generation service was firmly entrenched.
Considering some of AOL-TW's related holdings, I believe the next incarnation will be commercial Internet service with special "premium" content coming from web portals, and more content control via bundled adware and the like.
Time Warner/AOL owns Road Runner, and Road Runner shows no signs of leaving the broadband market. I don't get it: if they actually are leaving the market, why are they trying to get me to spend another $20/month for a 3Mbps to 6Mbps boost? ("Road Runner Premium"). If they're not leaving the market, why isn't AOL sending their business to Road Runner?
What do you need broadband for if all
you need is a picture of a cross on the screen.
...people think broadband is a southern rock group with chicks.
"What yuh doin' with that thar 'puter, Billy Bob?"
Yes! Let's remain with our archaic technologies, and deny the future! And considering they're dropping services in the midwest, the "Red States," I'm not surprised. Brilliant fucking idea. Hopefully AOL will be bankrupt in a year and we'll actually have to go to Pier 1 or something to buy our coasters. And they suck as coasters to begin with, too. I've got finger sized marks on my furniture where the sweat from the glass pooled in the center of the "OMG SIX YEARS OF AOL FREE OMG!" CD's.
And we're allegedly the hateful ones? Perhaps you should double-up on your Prozac and Viagra, yankee.
Dear AOL,
As I stated to your telemarketing rep who called me last week, I have DSL and no need for your "value added" content and/or advertising. Also, let me repeat what I said to her to close the conversation: AOL, aside from SCO, is the laughing stock of the IT industry. Every decision you make is simply stupid.
These comments are a result of my being offended by your "Help us make the internet better" ad campaign, which caters to your notoriously unsavvy user base. Here is how you can accomplish this:
The only sensible thing you have done in the past 5 years is seed the Mozilla Foundation. Somehow you managed not to stifle the entire project.
Welcome back the 3.5" floppies!
SlashFix extension. A fine substitute until the real actual code fix makes it into Firefox (or until Slashdot uses valid HTML, like that would ever happen!).
-AOL buys Netscape (possibly to cash-in on the lawsuit against Microsoft)
-AOL buys Nullsoft (maybe AOL wants their own branded media player)
-AOL signs contract with Microsoft to use IE browser (instead of using Netscape's browser that they paid 4.2 billion for)
-AOL lays off Netscape crew, but decides to fund Mozilla
-AOL is shutting down Nullsoft
-AOL is getting out of the broadband ISP business.
Has AOL done anything good in the last few years? What the hell was Time Warner thinking?
-Nick
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
With the way things are going in the legal world, once it becomes illegal to pretty much breathe online, broadband will not be as much of a value.
For most people, "If I cant download stuff, then why bother"... ( and I tend to agree )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Despite Dell having spanked everyone in the industry, computer builders still ship inventory to sit on Best Buy's (and Fry's and Comp USA's) shelves.
Despite iTunes, the recording industry can't imagine a world where people don't drive to the store to buy a physical piece of music.
Despite the growing ubiquity of broadband, AOL just can't get past the memory of the sweet markup they commanded with their modem bank in the glory days.
IMHO, the only thing that could have saved them (it's too late now) was to do what Microsoft is trying to do with webTV and the XBox: become the home entertainment center. AOL had some pretty unique content licensing deals back in the day: major magazines, features like The Motley Fool. If they had added on-demand streaming media and games on broadband while phasing out the dialup it might have been different.
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper!" - George W. Bush Nov. 2005
AOL is perhaps the worst company in the technology industry. Their business practices are somewhat lacking at best and totally horrible at worst. Just think of the mountains of garbage being generated by their mass mailing of CD-ROM discs that probably everybody throws directly into the garbage. The effects on our environment are completely tragic. And now look at what they're doing to their customers. AOL is the suxx0rz.
Too bad I don't have mod points, I thought it was an insightful comment.
Seriously, has hell frozen over? AOL moving out of broadband! Thank the heavens!
AOL Broadband is not the same as AOL for Broadband. The difference is that AOL for Broadband is a $15/month service that let's users who already have a broadband connection access higher quality content.
AOL Broadband is AOL's attempt at being a DSL provider. It didn't work out. In fact, ditching it is probably a good thing.
Hope that clears things up a bit.
Perhaps by only offering slower connections AOL can further delay their current subsribers discovery of how lackluster the AOL services really are?
/me says "ha ha" in nelson voice I am quite happy with my Earthlink cable broadband.
NO CARRIER
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Damn! I had almost enough to reside my house! I was counting on the AOL "Disk of the week" club to get me there.
This is like throwing the anchor out on a sinking ship, poor aol. Or rather, poor people who still use it. Oh but dont forget all the money theyve spent on advertising how they listen to all thier customers!
Like the saying goes, never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes. -Pyrotic
Tell me, with their slow speeds and crappy service, not to mention the horrid dialer program, who would WANT to be on AOL anyway?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
1.) Where I live, there used to be advertising for "AOL For Broadband." It wasn't an ISP, but rather a (IMHO, worthless) additional service you had to pay for on top of your cable/DSL connection. The idea was if you were one of these AOL dial up dummies and want to go to a cable modem, you wouldn't be "lost."
2.) This is a sign. I think less and less people believe AOL is the INTERNET. Back in the mid-late 90's, when AOL dial up was so god damn popular, people really believe AOL meant the same thing as the Internet. Nowadays people know better. AOL dial up is losing everyone who is getting smarter. AOL Broadband is a joke because those customers realized they never used the AOL services, just the Internet. Thus there was no need to pay an average of $57(!) a month for cable modem + aol, so why not dump AOL?
Eventually a large chunk of AOL'ers will go to other dial up's or head up into broadband, meaning AOL will return to it's earliest form: an above average BBS.
Of couse AOL will probably fold before it becomes "just a BBS" again.
AOL buys time warner-> AOL kills its internet business...
Emacs is good operating system, but it has one flaw: Its text editor could be better.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...another one of those evil Democrat conspiracies that we're all so used to being abused by...oh wait...
God help us if the Bush Regime and its cronies ever wind-up being behind any companies and corporations with, say, government contracts and stuff.
No, but perhaps you were not around in the good ol' BBS Days: When your dialup connection dropped, you'd get the 'NO CARRIER' message in your terminal.
Only if you used a modem which supported the Hayes AT command set. Many didn't. From manual acoustic coupler modems through to DEC, AT&T, and other proprietary direct connection modems, AT didn't wind up becoming a standard until the late '80s - early '90s; long after 2400bps modems had past their prime. As an aside I remember paying $350 for a US Robotic 2400bps modem in 1985 through a special BBS deal for SYSOPs US Robots offered, the modem at the time went for about $500 retail. Was among the first to offer 2400bps BBS in Massachusetts. --M
- Unparalled ease of use
- Available everywhere
- Original proprietary content
- The biggest name people knew. Sometimes the only one.
And this was for only a little more than an ISP with no content and no handholding.Net access has now become so easy with the newer versions of windows and better support/easy setup cd's that the handholding is now less special. Net access is now available from many many providers all over the place. The content is not special compared to the rest of the net any more, a lot of it is bought in from other sites or print publications. People now know that AOL is only one company.
The problem for them now is that there is a google and people can get broadband cheaper than AOL can offer it. It seems clear that you can either be an ISP or a content provider on the scale AOL wants to be. I don't think there's gonna be much market for a content-only provider though - they'll slide into obscurity.
That sound is AOL investors all over the world dumping the stock after finding out that the ISP division just released it's suicide note.
Hope you Red State idiots enjoy going back to dial-up; this is only the beginning of the ramifications of the culture war. You didn't really think it was settled on 112, did you?
They offered Broadband here in Mississippi? Why didn't they say something about it, maybe people would have signed up for it.
It's not really "hateful" when it's true, it's just reality-based assessment as opposed to the faith-based delusions.
IMHO, this is going to create lots of opportunities for small providers, particularly those in rural locations like wireless ISPs and municipally run networks. They'll be able to provide excellent customer service while keeping the costs affordable. This might be a blessing in disguise for the "mom and pop" ISPs. Just my two cents. :)
Regards,
Kory
Hmmph - you can count me among the people who wrote off AOL entirely when instead of sending me nice re-usable floppy disks they started sending non-reusable CDs.
Three Squirrels
Well AOL always has sucked IMHO, even its stock. The only thing good about it was the "You got mail" and AIM. Yet taking away one of their own services?!? They got to be nuts... they probably are already losing money, and that made it worse.
Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Bugs are good for building character in the user.
Nullroute AOL.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
To be associated with AOL, possibly they regret the merger. Notice how nowhere do you see "AOL-Time Warner" branding. They've spotted that AOL are going down the pan and are doing their best to step away from it.
Microsoft has broadband. Could AOL be doing some dirty tricks?
The same kind of thing happened to me, only the culprit was some half-baked company in California who claimed that I had authorized them to list my company on their website - for a small monthly fee of course. I just called the phone company and told them that the charges were unauthorized. after which they promptly adjusted the balance. The only problem is that they can't block charges, they can only remove them. Eventually I had to call the company and rip someone a new one...it was quite an amusing conversation...they told me that I had authorized them to bill me by cashing a $2.00 check they had sent. Yeah, like I'm that hard up. Only thing is they were at a loss for words when I pointed out that my company wasn't even listed as they had claimed. Case closed.
The South voted for monopoly this month, and they're getting it right away. Welcome to the narrow world of telco broadband, where "no competition" means never having to say you're sorry.
--
make install -not war
Odd; in the UK there have been a lot of TV adverts for AOL Broadband that emphasise how it's the latest thing since sliced bread. I wonder if they'll go back to dialup in the UK as well...
When I think about early broadband access, I think about how it was nice to have an account on a smaller ISP. But then without any warning at all they get gobbled up by a bigger ISP. Sometimes they went under and sold their customers to EarthLink for example, other times they got an offer they couldn't refuse. While this was frustrating, you at the very least didn't typically notice any downtime.
Why wouldn't AOL sell off their unwanted customer base to someone else?
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
But sometimes people do wake up, as happened when Hawaiians revolted against the abuse directed at Kamehameha Schools by Bishop Estate. One key factor might be concern for one's own welfare vs. concern for others. "As long as it doesn't affect me" could be a sanity check slogan for a lot of people.
Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
AOL is the worst virus that was ever made for the pc, outside of microsoft(that is a different discussion). I speak to troubled customers that can not connect to their internet(using their AOL account that they also pay for) but still do not quite gasp the concept that when you have a DSL/Cable connection all you have to use is IE, Netscape, Mozzila, or Firefox. Even though they can surf to their favorite webpages, inculding E-Bay, by going through IE(or other browser) since they are having a problem with their AOL they can not connect to the internet. Then they call me, and tell me how much the service sux cause they can not get to E-Bay or POGO by using their AOL, and even when I have them open IE and send them out to their presious E-Bay or POGO they still insist that they can not connect... I am estatic to hear that AOL is cancelling their BB services in the south(approx 1/2 of Charter service area), then maybe I will not have to hear so many people wine about not being able to sign in to AOL because of a U.S.E.R error.
AOL is the worst virus that was ever made for the pc, outside of microsoft(that is a different discussion). I work in the HSD Tech Support Dept for Charter Communications. I speak to troubled customers that can not connect to their internet(using their AOL account that they also pay for) but still do not quite gasp the concept that when you have a DSL/Cable connection all you have to use is IE, Netscape, Mozzila, or Firefox. Even though they can surf to their favorite webpages, inculding E-Bay, by going through IE(or other browser) since they are having a problem with their AOL they can not connect to the internet. Then they call me, and tell me how much the service sux cause they can not get to E-Bay or POGO by using their AOL, and even when I have them open IE and send them out to their presious E-Bay or POGO they still insist that they can not connect... I am estatic to hear that AOL is cancelling their BB services in the south(approx 1/2 of Charter service area), then maybe I will not have to hear so many people wine about not being able to sign in to AOL because of a U.S.E.R error.
Way to go AOHELL , most of the world is moving TO Broadband and High-Speed and you guys are moving OUT of it?! What's the plan, hoping that there will be a revival of Dial-Up?
---START SIG It is better to know that you have lost than to NOT know that you have won! ---END SIG
AOL needs to make like MSN and make deals to bundle their service with broadband ISP's in the way that MSN does with Verizon. Koko the monkey would do a better job at AOL than whoever is currently in charge.