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I have never posted in this section before, but I have a nagging question and I thought some tech gurus would be able to maybe shed some insight.
Until this week, I was one of the last 19 people in America to still dial up on my home PC. Yes, I know it is 2009.
However, I have always had ultra high speed at work, have a Blackberry, etc., so the need for high speed internet at home really wasn't huge; I had signed up for AOL dial up in 2000 and just continued to roll with it for my very basic purposes.
Finally bought a new PC and wanted to finally upgrade to high speed. My wife called around to several vendors such as AT&T, etc., to "comparison shop", however, I told her, "hey, I have been an AOL member since 1999, I bet they'd give us a decent deal to upgrade with them if we told them we were looking elsewhere."
So we call them, and to my utter shock and amazement, they tell us that they ONLY DO DIAL-UP...they have NO high speed!!
I was just floored by this. In fact, I still almost can't even believe it.
So my question...
Why in the world is AOL only doing dial up but not high speed? How does that make any sense? I know it seems like they almost went a bit more to a yahoo model with free email accounts, etc., but still, it seems like they missed a huge opportunity by not trying to upgrade all of their dial up users to their own high speed service over the years.
They don't provide access other than dial up, but you can use any method of access to use AOL. So you can get high speed from your cable/phone co, and reduce your monthly AOL bill by dropping dial-in access. You'll still have all the AOL goodies you're used to (if you use them), but it's only $15/mo.
Addendum: The reason they don't offer high speed access is because they don't own the infrastructure to deliver it, and they probably don't want to partner with the phone co. like Yahoo! did. With dialup, all you need is (basically) a bank of modems and a bunch of phone lines.
Addendum: The reason they don't offer high speed access is because they don't own the infrastructure to deliver it, and they probably don't want to partner with the phone co. like Yahoo! did.
Yep, I guess where I am coming from is that I would wonder strongly why they didn't invest in that infrastructure / partnering, considering in, say, 2002, they were the absolute king of the hill for getting internet access, and surely they saw high speed speeding ahead as the trend.
I guess that is where my confusion really lies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by swagger
With dialup, all you need is (basically) a bank of modems and a bunch of phone lines.
I wonder how many people still utilize AOL (or any other company) for dial up. AOL still seems to sell it. I felt like one of three people still utilizing it.
Yep, I guess where I am coming from is that I would wonder strongly why they didn't invest in that infrastructure / .
With dial up they were depending on the phone companies infrastructure, I'd also imagine the phone companies were actually not too happy when the internet came online as it probably put enormous stress on their own systems without any benefit to them. AOL was reaping the benefits of phone plans that didn't charge for length of local calls.
The cable and phone companies already have that infrastructure in place built up over decades to which they only need to improve it and not start from the ground up.
Yep, I guess where I am coming from is that I would wonder strongly why they didn't invest in that infrastructure / partnering, considering in, say, 2002, they were the absolute king of the hill for getting internet access, and surely they saw high speed speeding ahead as the trend.
They did - that's a large part of the reason they merged with Time-Warner, who already had a large cable network in many major cities. They just failed to properly anticipate the direction the Internet would take, and their business model didn't hold up.
Now that you can get AOL mail for free I have to wonder how AOL is still even in business.
Right, that's kind of where I am coming from. I mean, they are still selling dial up. At this point, what is the point? Isn't that sort of like trying to sell VHS machines next to DVR / DVD technology, etc.?
Right, that's kind of where I am coming from. I mean, they are still selling dial up. At this point, what is the point? Isn't that sort of like trying to sell VHS machines next to DVR / DVD technology, etc.?
There are still a lot of areas where "high speed" isn't available. Dialup is still cheaper, too, and just fine for Grandma who only wants to check her e-mail once a week. It's also a reliable method of access, no matter where you are. It doesn't matter if you're at home in Peoria or in a hotel in Anchorage - if you can plug into a phone line, you can get to the 'net.
There are still a lot of areas where "high speed" isn't available. Dialup is still cheaper, too, and just fine for Grandma who only wants to check her e-mail once a week. It's also a reliable method of access, no matter where you are. It doesn't matter if you're at home in Peoria or in a hotel in Anchorage - if you can plug into a phone line, you can get to the 'net.
These are all good points. I wonder how many people percentage-wise actually do still do dial up...as you say, for even like my situation, it worked out quite nicely for years.
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