AOL To Provide Free Service To High-Speed Customers?

Jul 6 2006, 10:05am CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

AOL, known to most people as "that Internet service provider that costs way too much money", may reportedly soon be absolutely free to people with a high-speed connection. The motive behind this potential move for AOL is to increase their advertising revenue. With the increasing obsolescence of dial-up, AOL's been losing customers rapidly, and advertising dollars have gone with them.

Under the proposed change, dial-up users who use another service could also sign up for all of AOL's services for free. There would still be a subscription-based fee for people who wanted to have AOL as their main dial-up provider.AOL says this risky move could cost them as much as $2 billion in lost subscription revenue, predicting as much as 8 million people cancelling their accounts.

Obviously AOL needs to pick up some steam, and they're realizing that they can't stay alive as a high-end dial-up service, or as a company that requires a double monthly fee for service for high-speed people. I think this move is a smart one for AOL. We'll see if it actually goes through.

Read more. Story broke by the Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Report Published by: Mark Raby

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Luigi Lugmayr
Luigi is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at ml@i4u.com. Luigi posts regularly on LuigiMe.com about his experience running I4U.