This is really more of a "research" question, not particularly local. But what the hey, I'll ask anyway because I'm just flat-out curious. I need a hunch corroborated or shot down.

Do you or anyone you know subscribe to a [proprietary] service such as the famed America On-Line ("AOL")?

If so, what value do you derive from it?

Being a long-timer in the IT industry, I've been using computers to "dial-in" to do work since around 1987 (on an obsolete Apple II+ with ProComm, no less).

As soon as it became available (around 1990?), I signed up with Prodigy [long gone as far as I know] and was a Prodigy subscriber until late 1995.

I knew very well that Prodigy and AOL and GEnie and CompuServe and others, were all non-Internet, proprietary services but lest we forget, the "Internet" didn't really become ubiquitous and readily available until around 1996-97, reaching insanity in 1999-2000.

Now that things have settled down a bit, I am puzzled by all of the AOL TV advertising. They blab on and on about "everyone deserves a faster Internet" and pitch their "security" software endlessly. Fine, but I just don't get the concept of paying money to something like an "AOL" in today's market where your broadband provider (whether WOW or Comcast or SBC/ATT or other) is really all you need.

I mean, what do you get with AOL? Or NetZero or EarthLink or any other one of these former "dial-up" services for that matter? An email address? Certainly, these companies aren't telcos, cable companies and own no wires, right? Do they have VAR deals with the likes of SBC/ATT?

In the "dial-up" era, you needed a modem to "dial in to", a place to land, so to speak. This modem connection would then get you into a server owned by the likes of AOL/NetZero etc. With always-on high-speed broadband, this concept seems more and more dated.

Here's the hunch I need corroborated:

Is AOL just scamming people? Playing off most people's marginal knowledge of how "computers and the Internet" really work? Trying to make it look like they are actually worth paying $26.99 [YIKES!] per month for an email address while a real telco provides the connection?

If you have AOL, I'd love to hear exactly what you get for your money. If not, feel free to shoot down or confirm the "sham-a-lama-ding-dong" nature of AOL's advertising in the broadband era.

I was one of the first subscribers to AOL (how many remember when it was a DOS application and not supported by Windows?) and still have an account there. While this may not make total, rational sense the reason I keep it is: 1) same email address 2) same email address for family members 3) they still have some proprietary content (especially for kids) 4) kids controls on site usage

I only pay about $12 a month since I don't use their dial-up service and have another internet connection. Personally, I rarely use the service, but it is THE way my kids access the internet and there are certain controls and they send a report to me after each access with where they went and what they did.

I'm another dope who uses it. And via dial-up no less. I can only justify it because:

1) We use a very local number which is not on their current active access list, less than a 5-mile distance, and...

2) that is connected to about 15-18 hours a day, and we never ever get knocked off, and...

3) it keeps Tammy Duckworth from calling us, and...

4) because it's so local, the phone bill charge for this connectivity is about 16 cents a month. Really. I'm not kidding.

5) To get broadband wired into this 100-year-old house properly, would be close to $700 to do it right, with all the drilling and wire pulling, etc., and I have to pay for that 7th period at the H.S. now.

Thanks for responding. I can completely understand the consistency of email addresses. A friend of mine from New Hampshire [who has made millions in the software industry] still uses his AOL email.

He says the same thing.

For a dial-up service, I would imagine AOL is still a first-class operation. What I can't grasp is their TV advertising as in "everyone deserves a faster Internet".

They have to be partnering with real telcos and cable companies because I don't "get" how AOL, by themselves, can provide a "faster Internet".

And, when there's a partner, there's a cut of your cash. Right?

Frankly, I consider their "faster Internet" TV ads a case of deceptive advertising.

Note on changing email addresses: Don't outfits like AOL offer a "mail forwarding" service if you drop them as a provider? For a fee, of course. And for a limited amount of time, but still, you should be able to smooth the transition to a new email address with something like an auto-forward of your old address. Just like a Change of Address at the USPS.

I think what they are trying to promote is their high speed linkage (through DSL???) as an improvement/upgrade over their dialup. Much the same way SBC/ATT promotes their DSL.

Not exactly the same. SBC/ATT owns the wires, the relays and the DSL booster boxes. If AOL is offering a "faster Internet" over DSL, it'll be coming to you on another company's wires. So why pay AOL?

That's what I meant by a partner agreement. This was a nascent business a few years ago that really has never taken off. I recall a company named Covad that tried to "sell" DSL without owning the wires. I think they're still around but not doing too well.

Did you ever hear of a company named Comdisco? Based in Rosemont, just off the Kennedy expressway?

Trying to become a "value-added reseller" of DSL was the primary cause of their 2001 bankruptcy. You see, their real business was leasing and disaster recovery (aka "business continuity").

They knew zilch about the telco industry and tried to compete with the likes of Verizon and SBC.

StOOpid move.

After trying to learn more at AOL's Web site and coming up empty, I found this explanation on a DSL reports site.

This pretty much answers the question I had. So when AOL says "everyone deserves a faster Internet" what they really mean is: "a telco will deliver you the 'faster Internet', we'll just take our cut, sucker".

Buyer beware.

Based upon what I am reading in these articles, I'm guessing we've seen the last of the "everybody deserves a faster Internet" AOL ads.

The beginning of the end of the dial-up era is at hand. Not to mention the era of the once-ubiquitous "1,000 FREE MINUTES!! AOL CDs".

Existing dial-up users are entering a "grandfather" twilight zone.

AOL to lay off up to 5,000 workers

It appears as though AOL has recognized that the online "service fee" model, whether by-the-minute, by-the-month or by-the-whatever, is at the end of its usable [profitable] life.

Actually, I applaud them for this.

I use AOL as an ISP, it does retain it's flaws but it contains better options than other gateways. Just thought I'd pitch in 2 cents since it's only a penny 4 ur thoughts.

Hey...watch your step with the 2 cents...they're mine!

quote:

Originally posted by This is me:
I use AOL as an ISP, it does retain it's flaws but it contains better options than other gateways. Just thought I'd pitch in 2 cents since it's only a penny 4 ur thoughts.

Are you using AOL as a dial-up ISP? If so, you're in the grandfather zone I mentioned and you're fine.

What I viewed as borderline deception [and the reason I started this thread] was the carnival-barker-style flim-flam "Everyone deserves a faster Internet" ad campaign that AOL was running earlier this year.

You might have noticed that all of those AOL "faster Internet" TV ads have disappeared. To AOL's credit, they have packed that line of BS up and have decided instead to go the Yahoo/Google route.