AOL's new strategy: You've got free stuff

[Guest]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/biztech/06 ... index.html

[StormChasr]

AOL's strategy--Merge with Time Warner, and ruin that company.

"You've got a crummy ISP."

[Guest]

AOL's strategy--Merge with Time Warner, and ruin that company.

"You've got a crummy ISP."

You can say that again. Customer service is not the greatest. Whne I had it back in the mid 90s to about 2000, dial-up was okay, but slow. Qwest came out with cable Internet, and we got that ! MUCH better!

[StormChasr]

I stick with Road Runner for cable---several years now, and minimal complaints. They do a good job supporting business customers.

[alicia-w]

Amongst the computer gurus here, AOL is known as Hacker Central. We have Cox HS Internet and love it....

[sunny]

Amongst the computer gurus here, AOL is known as Hacker Central. We have Cox HS Internet and love it....

Just got Cox a few weeks ago - LOVE IT

[The Big Dog]

AOL's strategy--Merge with Time Warner, and ruin that company.

Well, AOL was pretty much ruined before that. There were a couple of forces at work here:

1) For the most part, AOL was designed for people who knew very little about the web. Well, that worked in 1995, but in 2005, people are a lot more net savvy. Unfortunately, AOL hasn't changed enough. They are making inroads, but they still insist on self-contained proprietary software to do everything -- read mail, read newsgroups, etc. IOW, they are still treating their customers like babies.

2) They were too late getting in on the broadband game. Problem is, broadband isn't profitable unless you own the wire going into the homes. That's why the telcos do pretty well with DSL, but Earthlink doesn't. It was a major paradigm shift, and AOL wasn't prepared in the least. I always figured AOL wanted Time-Warner so they could get into the cable internet business, and TW brought the wire into the homes. Even if they could do it now, their customers who have already switched to broadband have been gone from AOL for some time, and it's not likely they will ever come back.

[pojo]

*cough* AoHell!