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AOL reduced its broadband products
Cut AOL DSL and AOL Cable
(old news - 10:16AM Thursday Feb 26 2004)
AOL appears to have given up offering AOL via DSL and AOL via cable, where the subscriber joins another ISP but pays AOL. Instead AOL will only offer one broadband product - AOL Broadband, which requires availability of Time Warner cable. Dialup "bring your own access" plans remain, and existing AOL DSL/AOL cable subscribers will be maintained until they leave. The decision was quietly made such that from Jan 31st the extra AOL broadband options were withdrawn.

Of course subscribers to AOL dialup contemplating broadband still have the option of reducing their service to the 14.95 "bring your own access" plan, then subscribing to a DSL or Cable provider, then connecting back to AOL via the BYOA method. AOL Subscribers mentioned the change in offerings here: AOL Forum.

Forums » AOL reduced its broadband products
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NoFatChicks
No, I'M The Exon And You're The Intron

join:2002-06-15
Blountsville, AL

edit:
February 26th, @10:24AM

Too little, too late

They started way too late in the arena, and they offered too little, for the premium they demanded.
weedahoe

join:2003-09-14
Duluth, GA

Re: Too little, too late

I will buy into AOL when AOL has support in the US and I can understand them....

odog
Cable Centric Vendor Biased
Premium
join:2001-08-05
Norcross, GA
clubs:
·Comcast
·Metrocast Communic..
·Vonage

BYOA needs to be cheaper

$14.95 for email and a portal?

drop it back to $9.95 and more people will take that option.

i don't use AOL, but suggest it to people when they are to intimidated by IE/outlook. at $14.95 is a hard sell, for $10 it wouldn't be nearly as hard.
--
disclaimer: my opinions are my own, my employer is not responsible.

GNXPower
Got Boost?
Premium
join:2003-12-18
Huntington Beach, CA

Re: BYOA needs to be cheaper

AOL is way more than email and a portal. Just the Realpass (included with AOHell) is worth nearly $15, then CD quality Netscape radio, etc.

However you have to have people wanting all that content.
--
To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Taurus333

join:2001-04-06
Ohio
I pay $7.95 for byoa. They don't seem to publicize this plan but it does exist and has been offered for a few years now. The difference is that $14.95 includes some dial-up hours while the $7.95 plan does not.

DHRacer
Fire Survivor

join:2000-10-10
Lake Arrowhead, CA
·Charter Pipeline
·Verizon west (ex G..

Re: BYOA needs to be cheaper

How do you get this? My g/f has AOL and her parents have DSL, so she pays $15 a month just to put a front end on the DSL connection (and she pays half the DSL connection because they got it for her).

I've tried telling her she's paying too much and she could save some money, but every time I get her to call they tell her the $14.95 thing, and she doesn't argue about it and hangs up. She will never need the Dial-up, why don't they (AOL) be straight about that and offer only what's needed?
--
"The three most dangerous things are a programmer with a soldering iron, a manager who codes, and a user who gets ideas." - Unknown
"A computer is like an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy." - Joseph Campbell

Mtav80
Premium
join:2002-12-28
Loveland, CO
·Comcast

Re: BYOA needs to be cheaper

said by DHRacer See Profile:
How do you get this? My g/f has AOL and her parents have DSL, so she pays $15 a month just to put a front end on the DSL connection (and she pays half the DSL connection because they got it for her).
Call AOL. Tell them you think $15 is too much and threaten to cancel. You will get get a least a couple months of free service. Then they might tell you how to get the cheaper BYOA.
--
"We're now officially known as the United States of Conservative Prudes" -Blech

Rob
In Deo speramus
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
I, too, pay $7.95/mo. for AOL BYOA. The plan is no longer available, a new plan is tho, $9.95/mo. It's a "don't ask, dont tell" plan through AOL. Call them up, tell a friend has it for $9.95, you want it for $9.95 or you'll cancel.

tsifox

join:2000-06-12
There
·Optimum Online

Re: BYOA needs to be cheaper

I just called them and told them a friend pays $9.95 while I pay $14.95 for the same service and he told me that was a special promotion or something.I asked him if he can switch me to that plan now and he said that it is no longer available.It sucks how they treat long time customers so I guess that's why many people cancel their service.
I may try again and if it doesn't work I will ask them to cancel it.

Mtav80
Premium
join:2002-12-28
Loveland, CO

Re: BYOA needs to be cheaper

Just call and cancel. I swear buddy of mine got AOL free for 10 months. Just called in to cancel every couple months. Was pretty funny.
--
"We're now officially known as the United States of Conservative Prudes" -Blech

Rob
In Deo speramus
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
·Comcast

said by tsifox See Profile:
I just called them and told them a friend pays $9.95 while I pay $14.95 for the same service and he told me that was a special promotion or something.I asked him if he can switch me to that plan now and he said that it is no longer available.It sucks how they treat long time customers so I guess that's why many people cancel their service.
I may try again and if it doesn't work I will ask them to cancel it.

Cancelling won't be as easy as 1-2-3. A friend of mine had OAL for 8 months free. She'd call every month and tell them she didn't have the money (and she really didn't), so they'd give her 3 months free, and 3 months free and 3 months free. Finally on the 8th month they cancelled her account.
eco
Premium
join:2001-11-28
Wilmington, DE

How many hours do you get with the 14.95 BYOA? I may be interested in this. I currently still have my old AOL account which I've had for about 12 years now, which I currently just use for vacations and such since I got a cable modem in 1999. I have the unlimited plan and wouldn't mind saving 10 bucks since I only need it for a few hours while on vacation.

justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY

Re: BYOA needs to be cheaper

5 hours dialup i think.

odog
Cable Centric Vendor Biased
Premium
join:2001-08-05
Norcross, GA
clubs:
$8 bucks is certainly worth it to many people...

inteller
Sociopaths always win.

join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK

Subsidize the service

AOL should try and outsource the ISP from the provider, like MSN does for Quest. Cox ISP services suck..and Cox could subsidize this into the price of the bill if they let AOL do what they do so crappy.

dslwanter
Broadband blackhole no more
Premium
join:2002-12-16
Lowellville, OH
·Armstrong Zoom In..
·AT&T Midwest

AOL needs to be cheaper PERIOD!

AOL charges $23.90 for dial-up and I believe $54 for DSL or Cable. The amount of content they include is good, but how much is too much? You stuff your services with all this content and give your users no room to stay connected. Then you have companies like SBC offering DSL for as little as $29.95 a month. I know people that have DSL from SBC, my friends that live down the street for example as I can't get DSL but yet they can, they have just as good if not better content that AOL, and pay roughly $15 less than someone who goes with AOL DSL. As far as their dial-up, that needs to come down simply because people like me, with the best computers on the market, still can't stay connected to the service. I get 530000bps which is excellent for dial-up, but AOL has so much on their server, how am I to stay connected? They need to re-format the service and drop the price.
--
98 Feet out of range for DSL and stuck with the only cable provider that won't offer broadband, what's a guy to do?

knightstmplr1msncom

@verizon.net

Re: AOL needs to be cheaper PERIOD!

i have recently told aohell to take a hike after being a customer of years longstanding as well as a beta tester for them since 5.0 up to and including 9.0 as well as the tahiti project ...they are totally inflexible in their way of doing business with their customers especially former loyal ones such as myself ...im in the state of nh and decided to make the transition to dsl usuing verizon as my provider ....what a world of difference ....once i deleted all aol software from my system ...i suddenly discovered that i know longer experience ANY system glitches whatsoever ....i did tell them when they announced that they were going to release 9.0 that after beta testing it for them that i strongly disagreed with them about rushing this to market ...they told me to keep my mouth shut or i would be deleted from their beta testing group ....well that got me to thinking ....it took me about 1.5 seconds to think ....lol..... i then called verizon and since i already had their freedom package for 54.95 per month for unlimited long distance in state and local calls etc with caller id speed dial call waiting etc ...that they would only charge 29.95 for their dsl service ....that also includes msn premium service ...the butterfly you see on the commercials ...but also free premium encyclopaedia encarta ...as well as free mcaffee virus scanner and free mcaffee firewall as well as a host of other freebies including microsoft office online etc ....obviously this switch was a no brainer for me ....i encourage all disgruntled aol users that read this message to call verizons encore service at 1-800-688-2880....and yes ...im a real satisfied customer here not a verizon employee and you are welcome to email me at knightstmplr1@msn.com if there are any questions ....also as a side point ...if youve ever called aol tech support as i have and gotten nothing but frustration of not getting the problem fixed or long time waiting on the phone ....verizon fixes it first time every time in my personal experience ....these people are the true pros out here ....i cant say enough about the service i get here in dover nh

djrobx

join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME


edit:
February 26th, @01:09PM

One big mistake was the proprietary stack

Initially AOL was using their own proprietary connection method over DSL. I had one poor guy that AOL 8.0 flat out refused to work on his XP machine (the AOL packet driver would lock the machine up), he had to revert to AOL 7.0. It precluded a lot of common broadband things like routers and connection sharing. They were also giving out crappy Actiontec USB modems.

They later offered a proprietary router, and finally allowed normal PPPoE login, but I could never recommend going directly with AOL broadband because of the proprietary stuff. I never understood why they did all of that, since they already had BYOA working.

With the cutthroat ISP market they are probably going to make just as much money on BYOA anyway.

--
\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network

tonyram57

join:2001-11-08
Brooklyn, NY

Had AOL for 5 minutes then cancelled.

I had them for 5 minutes about 6 months ago I subscribed for radio@aol and found out that many stations were missing that were in radio@netscape then I the program 8 at the time froze up on me a few times. Plus it was just one big portal site, I clicked links on AOL and they just linked me to other sites. After 5 minutes I called up and canceled. The only problem is sometimes they bug me to sign back up. With this now maybe they will now leave me alone.

CPM

join:2001-08-24
Miami, FL

free aol

I installed 9.0 about 9 months ago. I have verizon dsl. I haven't given one cent yet to aol. I called them up to cancel my account and they keep giving me 3 months more for free. For free I will use AOL I love talking to overweight horny housewives.. LOL
robie88

join:2003-04-19
New York, NY

Re: free aol

funny, I had AOL for years and then when Roadrunner came to my building I switched but kept aol on the BYOA plan. when they raised it to $14.95 I called them and told them forget it, it was too much so they gave it for free for awhile and then at some point cancelled it. Back then, I told them if they had kept it at $9.95 I would keep it just to hold on to my long term email accounts, but they couldn't do it. I remember thinking what a huge mistake they were making letting long term customers go who had gotten high speed but were willing to keep their foot in the old AOL door.

I recently got 6 months free AOL with a new computer, and it's interesting to see how the mighty have fallen. Sounds like now they would practically give it away to keep you on. When the 6 months end if they would do it for $7.95 I would hold on to it. I don't love it, but some of the content that you used to be able to find for free elsewhere no longer has that kind of availability, so between that and the extra mailboxes 8 bucks a month doesn't seem that bad. I wouldn't give them one penny more though.

IllIlIlllIll
Elitedata
Premium
join:2003-07-06
Lindenhurst, NY

Re: free aol

my main reason for having an account was only for the pr server rooms.

g3ddylee

join:2002-12-09
Lincoln Park, NJ

Re: free aol

Wow, you just read my mind. pr cerver 1-10 was ultimate. Nowadays, with broadband and all, now I can actually get all of those DC/Ps2 games I was only dreaming of downloading back in the day ;]

IllIlIlllIll
Elitedata
Premium
join:2003-07-06
Lindenhurst, NY

Re: free aol

those pr cerver rooms were even better than newsgroups.
im sure it wont be long before newsgroups are attacked in the same manner.

cork1958
Cork

join:2000-02-26
Fruitport, MI
·Charter Pipeline

figure it out

Never have figured out why would anyone be so gullible as to pay for a BYO anything in combination with broadband. AOHELL content? Get real. What do you think the internet is? It's ALL content. This BYO stuff has to be one of the biggest rip offs ever. Especially in conjunction with AOHELL.

mr_slick

join:2003-05-22
Lynnwood, WA

Re: figure it out

you said it! you can find anything on the net for FREE if you know where to look (or look long enough)

Theo25

@attbi.com

byoa is better then their cable deal

I have used the byoa for years, so much better then the actual cable plan, this way you get the best of both worlds. It doesn't surprise me they are only going to push the byoa for cable instead of the agreements with other providers, the cable companies take most of the profits in that case (which is what they do to others with their time warner lines). Its just not a good business model imo....
dannysdailys

join:2000-09-29
Lockport, NY


edit:
February 28th, @05:44AM

Even AOL can't fight the telco's

First, let me preface this by saying I have no affiliation with AOL, I don't work for them and don't know anyone that does:

But, I will give the big guy his due...

I'm not at all surprised AOL has pulled the plug on these agreements. Even AOL can't fight telco monopolies. The only reason they still deal with Time/Warner is because they own it and don't get screwed.

I've had experience the hard way with AOL DSL and Verizon. Verizon would cause all kinds of problems and tell you to call AOL. "It's their problem." Of course, they have their own competing service. (oh, I'm SURE that had nothing to do with it...) Yes, the AOL stack for USB was a problem, but when the modem won't lock, that's not AOL.

I was an original beta tester for the AOL DSL initiative and have several articles that may be of interest:

AOL DSL Plus, a plus?: »www.dannysdailys.com/tips/dan20.html

AOL DSL, all gone, thank God: »www.dannysdailys.com/tips/dan29.html

AOL Broadband is offered in different ways: You can pay 7.95: This gives you unlimited AOL and not much else. (if you consider the best email system in the world and AOL Broadband content, "not much else.")

The 14.95 that everyone touts, offers some dialup service (for travelers) and allows all 7 screen names to be on AOL at the same time.

For the folks that don't think AOL broadband is worth it? Check this out:

AOL 8+ for Broadband: Not your Daddy's AOL: »www.dannysdailys.com/tips/dan41.html

I highly suggest folks try AOL for Broadband before they bad mouth it. It only makes them look like the fools they are... Especially for people on these boards! You guys aren't running e-machines and are paying somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 dollars a month just for your connection. I don't want to EVEN HEAR it's too expensive!

For those that claim they've had nothing but problems with AOL8 or 9? I highly suggest you look at your own systems as quickly as you blame AOL for all your problems. I think you'll find; No, I KNOW you'll find your systems setups to be so bad, they won't even run mainstream software! If AOL is anything, it's mainstream; even a lowly e-machine will run it with no problems. Enough said...

Also, AOL dial up now offers it's service for 14.95 if you sign up for a year.

My tips sites have no affiliation with AOL and offers articles on many different subjects.
»www.dannysdailys.com/tips

Cheers
--
Madness Takes Its Toll, Please Have Exact Change

Dan Daily
Owner/Webmaster
»www.dannysdailys.com
Forums » AOL reduced its broadband products


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