BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Goodbye AOHell
I'm almost glad they didn't evolve, but they had no real ties into cable, or dsl providers so go beyond the antiquated dial-up business. They overcharged for it, and made it next to impossible to cancel at times. I'm amazed they still are surviving today in any capacity.
I won't miss them, and similar providers who required you install their special software to use their dial-up service. |
|
woody7
Premium
join:2000-10-13
Torrance, CA
·EarthLink
·DSL EXTREME
| Time to just Die and go away............. 
--
BlooMe |
|
Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to BlitzenZeus
For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for:
1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $29.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life.
2) It brought the masses to the internet. Once AOL started accepting email from the internet and allowing internet access to more than their walled garden, it made people a LOT more comfortable outside of AOL. |
|
cornelius785
join:2006-10-26
Worcester, MA | i agree. if the internet really ever had a marketer for the internet, i say it would be AOL. what other company sent out millions of free install discs? |
|
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
·Verizon FIOS
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Matt
Well the prices at the end for unlimited dial-up internet were $10-20 at the most to try to keep their customers from broadband, some of the cheaper ones trying to show you additional adds while you browsed, hence my hatred for carriers like this.
Broadband started to be around dial-up prices plus the additional cost of a phone line so those were the first people to change to broadband since it was faster, and cost the same as having to pay for the second line also.
Then broadband became cheaper, some only held out due to forced packaging with tv services, or the felt they didn't want to pay more, however still had to deal with the annoying part of not being able to talk on the phone at the same time. If they paid for a second line, and dial-up at this point there was no help for them.
I have a feeling that the majority of dial-up users left are stuck with poor broadband coverage, they just haven't looked into the real cost of getting anything faster, or can't depend on a wireless cellular provider.
I helped somebody recently who was still using juno dial-up, and I ended up saving them money since they no longer had to pay for dial-up, along with their phone provider had a non-contract dsl/phone package for 1mbit/128kbit for the same price he was already for his single phone line. They would of had to buy a modem, but we had an old dsl modem laying around which worked perfectly for them, however this wasn't without a fight from the sales agents trying to push their faster services, we actually had to hang up as the first guy was being a jerk about it. The second guy actually gave us the package he wanted. It wasn't amazingly fast, we told him he could go must faster if he really wanted, but all he did was e-mail and browse the web anyway. I was honestly amazed they still used dial-up.
--
My hourly rates:
$25 per hour.
$35 per hour if you want to watch.
$45 per hour if you want to help.
$75 per hour if you tried to fix it, and failed.
$125 per hour if you called tech support, and didn't fix the issue while making things worse |
|
Jonbo298
join:2004-01-12
Council Bluffs, IA | reply to Matt
They did accomplish some good things for the time, unfortunately (actually fortunately), they didn't adapt to technology as it evolved and now they are where they are. |
|
CO_Chris
Premium
join:2001-08-28
Broomfield, CO
 ·Comcast
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
 ·Comcast Digital Vo..
| reply to Matt
said by Matt  :For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for: 1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $19.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life. Fixed.. |
|
SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | reply to cornelius785
Except they tried to keep you in their own content zone. Internet access was ony added later. |
|
SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | reply to woody7
Too bad they're not taking TW with them. |
|
Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to CO_Chris
said by CO_Chris :said by Matt :For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for: 1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $19.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life. Fixed.. It was $29.99 when it was first offered, reduced to $19.99 much later. |
|
44402812
Hack The Planet
Premium
join:2006-08-28
Plattsburgh, NY
| reply to Matt
said by Matt :For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for: 1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $29.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life. 2) It brought the masses to the internet. Once AOL started accepting email from the internet and allowing internet access to more than their walled garden, it made people a LOT more comfortable outside of AOL. Number 2 is not necessarily a good thing  Some morons don't belong on the internet! |
|
Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| reply to BlitzenZeus
They're still surviving based on momentum. There are still people who think that AOL = Internet and they need to pay AOL's monthly fee to go online. Currently, I would say that there are around 6.3 million of these deluded souls. Luckily for them, though, a couple million of them wake up annually and free themselves from AOL's grip. At this rate, AOL should go belly up in 2012.
--
-Jason Levine
Support a children's charity. Buy a calendar and/or a photo book. Shooting For A Cause |
|
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
·Verizon FIOS
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by Jason Levine :They're still surviving based on momentum. There are still people who think that AOL = Internet and they need to pay AOL's monthly fee to go online. Currently, I would say that there are around 6.3 million of these deluded souls. Luckily for them, though, a couple million of them wake up annually and free themselves from AOL's grip. At this rate, AOL should go belly up in 2012. ...and they will keep trying to bill some until 2014 
--
My hourly rates:
$25 per hour.
$35 per hour if you want to watch.
$45 per hour if you want to help.
$75 per hour if you tried to fix it, and failed.
$125 per hour if you called tech support, and didn't fix the issue while making things worse |
|
DaveNJ
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey
·Comcast
·Patriot Media
1 edit | reply to Jason Levine
said by Jason Levine :They're still surviving based on momentum. There are still people who think that AOL = Internet and they need to pay AOL's monthly fee to go online. Currently, I would say that there are around 6.3 million of these deluded souls. Luckily for them, though, a couple million of them wake up annually and free themselves from AOL's grip. At this rate, AOL should go belly up in 2012. But these people are probably in areas without broadband. Some may even be dialup services, for like tivo, and Replay etc.
--
They Live... We Sleep...
“Spreading the wealth around” never results in a better outcome for people. It always results in destruction.
|
|
v35_pilot
Whoops, there goes another AMU
Premium
join:2005-12-12
Fayetteville, NY
·ViaTalk
·Verizon FIOS
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to woody7
said by woody7 :Time to just Die and go away............. As opposed to the non-Zombie inspiring scenario, "go away and die." |
|
fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo
·Skype
| said by v35_pilot :said by woody7 :Time to just Die and go away............. As opposed to the non-Zombie inspiring scenario, "go away and die." OK, that almost made me blow coffee out my nose! 
--
Tradition: Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. --despair.com |
|
CO_Chris
Premium
join:2001-08-28
Broomfield, CO
·Comcast
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
·Comcast Digital Vo..
| reply to Matt
said by Matt :said by CO_Chris :said by Matt :For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for: 1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $19.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life. Fixed.. It was $29.99 when it was first offered, reduced to $19.99 much later. Not sure where you lived or what rock you lived under but it was 19.99 I just got a pc and it was a metered service back then just like CompuServe till the 19.99 Unlimited service came out. If you paid 29.99 you got FUKed |
|
Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| said by CO_Chris :Not sure where you lived or what rock you lived under but it was 19.99 I just got a pc and it was a metered service back then just like CompuServe till the 19.99 Unlimited service came out. If you paid 29.99 you got FUKed As recently as 2005 it was $23.99 and dropped to $19.99.
»news.cnet.com/AOL-tests-waters-f···605.html
The Time Warner company has cut the price of its unlimited dial-up service to $19.95 a month from $23.90 for new U.S. subscribers who sign up within the next few weeks.
So again, when AOL announced their unlimited plan, it was $29.99 a month. You are mistaken. |
|
cpucrash0
join:2003-05-24
Mcallen, TX
1 edit | reply to Matt
said by Matt :For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for: 1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $29.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life. 2) It brought the masses to the internet. Once AOL started accepting email from the internet and allowing internet access to more than their walled garden, it made people a LOT more comfortable outside of AOL. AOL wasn't the first to do unlimited dial-up. The first company to do it was a company called "WOW" That was the first company to do unlimited then aol started doing unlimited dial-up. It was a national ISP and part of compu-serve.. |
|
Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL
| reply to Matt
In 1996 they experimented with 20 for 20. 20 hours for $20. Then at the end of 96 they introduced full unlimited for $19.95. Then they raised it a few years later to 21.95 and it topped at 23.90.
It was never $29.99
»news.cnet.com/MSN-takes-on-AOL/2···613.html |
|
