Comcast Eyeing Viacom, Time Warner? > AOL

AOL

Actually, if Comcast bought AOL they'd buy big-name blogs like Engadget. Decent purchase if you ask me, though you're right that on the software/dialup side they're pure crap.

it maybe pure crap but it'd give them the chance to get people off Dial-up by selling them discounted HSI for x amount of months. Would be a great way to get more customers. and maintain their spot at the top.

Comcast doesn't sell internet for below $25 per month, even on the 1 Mbps Economy tier with CATV. AOL's current plans run between $9.95 and $25.90 per month.

Also, most AOL people who are within range of Comcast have probably switched to that service. I'd wager that 90% of AOL users at this point are out of range of Comcast's cable footprint.

ehhh. i wouldn't. the biggest issue for people on Dial-up is the pricing of HSI, even low cost DSL from ATT. Comcast doesn't have below $25 NOW but if they took AOL on they could do a promotion for those customers and those customers only just to get their business and then kill AOL.

If people were buying on price that much, Comcast should set up a "data line" service like TWC offers/used to offer for $15 per month or so. Then again, they might not be able to make a profit on such a tier, even f it provides an upgrade path for customers.

If Comcast bought then likked off AOL, people would just look online and find Earthlink, NetZero, etc. AOL to my knwoeldge is no longer the nation's #1 dialup ISP.

AOL is still the largest Dial-up provider in the Country. may still be in the World with their other countries.

even at $15 off those customers they'd make a profit. You can't tell me they'd lose money even after they'd get those customers to upgrade to faster speeds.

Actually, I can tell you they will lose money. Just did in fact

It doesn't require a tech visit to come and set up dialup. It does to set up internet-only cable service. My cable tech visit was $100. Count in the times where you have to straighten out issues with the more complex cable network and you get extra costs added in.

In reality dialup internet costs more than basic cable 'net (voice line charges from your telco) however people aren't going to easily see that on the I'm-using-AOL-because-I-want-cheap-internet side.

The real question is whether Comcast would even want AOL dialup customers, when they could just sell 'em to Earthlink, who likes that sort of thing.