AnnaS8
join:2005-05-26
Annapolis, MD
| Bottom line...
The reason AOL still has so many subs is that a good chunk of the US is still without consumer grade HSI. A lot of folks don't have access to anything but dial-up. They also like how it is a one stop shop to keep it simple. People who travel also like how they have national access numbers so they aren't on long distance to get online. They have the largest file transfer capacity, unlimited mail storage and so on. I am not saying that is the greatest. In places like where my Dad lives where you only have a choice of dial-up or dial-up it isn't all that bad. Now to the people that say that they could do Sat Internet...Get out of my face. That is such a waste of time. I have it at work so I know how god awful it is and I wouldn't give it to my worst enemy. |
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T1 Rocky
join:2002-11-15
Dallas, TX
 ·Time Warner Cable
| AOL makes it easy. That's why they are still around. You get a disk and you put it in and it automatically launches into your software. Plus they got in the market early and grabbed market share. They are your parents / grandparents ISP. But I don't think the younger generation embraces them as they are more technologically savy.
Personally, I'm rooting for them and Earthlink since I was an ISP guy and our whole industry was crushed by the ILECs and cable companies in their anticompetitive policies.
My prediction - the ILEC's will crush the cable companies for the next 4 years and buy them for pennies on the dollar in 2011. The worlds most popular search engine and website at that time will be Verizon.com with AT&T.com not far behind. Sprint and Qwest will have merged with AT&T and Verizon and there will essentially be 2 telecom companies. Google and yahoo will be purchased by the ILECs in 2010 and in order to get your website seen, your will have to pay ebay like fees to the ILECs. All of this will be allowed and go unnoticed by the general public because of the intense lobbying put forth by the ILECs.
None of this will be beneficial to the American public by the way. |
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