MSN Offers Cost Break for AOL Dial-Up Customers! Yea!

For those of us AOL fed-up dial-up captives of the cost increase to
$25.90, MSN might have a $17.95/month solution. If you're stuck for
now with AOL, like me, ANY alternative is probaly welcome!
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"Microsoft Cuts Internet Dial-Up Price to Lure AOL Users"

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 29, 2006; D04

Microsoft Corp.'s MSN made an aggressive bid yesterday to take dial-up
Internet subscribers from America Online Inc., announcing that it would
cut the price of a service that has been dwindling in popularity.

Microsoft's price cut, to $17.95 a month from $21.95 for a dial-up
service that includes e-mail, parental monitoring and photo services,
is a sharp departure from AOL's strategy of pushing dial-up customers
to switch to broadband. Last month, Dulles-based AOL announced that it
would increase the monthly fee it charges its dial-up subscribers by
$2, to $25.90. The AOL price increase began taking effect earlier this
month.

The long-term market for subscribers who log on to the Internet the
old-fashioned way is not bright, as consumers switch to faster
broadband service. The price war reflects the fierce competition for
consumers among online portals that want to serve as users' home pages.
"We definitely think there's some opportunity for AOL dial-up
subscribers to explore alternatives when they see a price increase,"
said Kevin Mizuhara, director of marketing for MSN Access dial-up
service. "While it's a declining market, we do believe there's going to
be a continued market for dial-up access."

As of 2005, 68 percent of North American households had Internet
service, and that number is projected to be 78 percent by 2010,
Forrester Research said. The company forecasts that by 2010, 62 percent
of U.S. households will have broadband service, indicating that access
to broadband and price will encourage many users to drop the slower
dial-up service. There are more than 30 million dial-up households,
Forrester said.

When AOL announced plans to raise its fees for dial-up service, the
move was viewed as an effort to push subscribers into signing up for
AOL's broadband services, which are bundled with Internet service
providers via cable or DSL and offered for the new $25.90 price. AOL's
base of dial-up subscribers has been shrinking rapidly; 7 million
customers have dropped out in the past few years. By squeezing the
difference between dial-up and broadband prices, AOL figured it could
get its customers to upgrade.

An AOL spokeswoman declined to comment on the results of those efforts
and about the competition from MSN.

For now, analyst Charles Golvin said, there are still a healthy number
of dial-up users to make it worth MSN's effort. But the difficulty, he
said, will be to convince AOL subscribers that it is worth the extra
effort to change their e-mail address and contact lists to save a few
bucks a month.

"People don't like to have to send an e-mail telling everyone about
their new e-mail address," said Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester.
"It's a really sticky point."

MSN said it will begin an online marketing campaign to lure AOL users
and emphasize that those who switch can still keep some of their most
treasured features of AOL: instant messaging and buddy lists.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032801668.html

 

Thats stupid. AOL never did care. MSN sucks.

 

Dear Laciji:

Dial-up sucks, doesn't matter whose.

David A. Smith
AOL *and* Cox, 'cause I can use AOL in Japan (for a huge fee...)

 

Screw both AOL and MSN,

You can get great dial-up service for $4.95 a month from

http://all2easy.net


PJ