AOL Discovers Broadband

from the it's-about-time dept

For years, stories coming out of AOL said they were struggling with the idea of high speed internet connections. It really seemed like they were in denial. They knew that they would make less margin on high speed internet users, so they pretty much ignored them. Earlier this year, AOL finally seemed to "get it" and launched a massive campaign to get people to think of using AOL for high speed connections as well (even if some think their strategy is still a little messed up). The Washington Post now takes a look at how things have changed within AOL to get them more focused on broadband. A year ago, they only had eight employees focused on broadband offerings. When Jon Miller took over AOL he was shocked to discover that some within the company still wanted to ignore broadband altogether. While I still think they're making some strategic mistakes (that whole walled-garden approach), it is an interesting read about how the company has shifted focus internally.
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  1. identicon
    Cory, 9 May 2003 @ 5:07am

    Broadband with limits

    AOL/Time Warner's Road Runner service is now getting bandwidth limits imposed in many areas. Especially ones where there are no other broadband alternatives (like mine).

    15 gigs per month is your limit then you have to pay $12.95 per 5 gigs that you go over that. If you are deemed a "power user" and fall within their estimated 3 to 5 percent group of high bandwidth users, you now will get letters and phone calls urging you to upgrade to their Road Runner Extreme packages.

    Fun fun fun. :P

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    August Jackson, 9 May 2003 @ 5:47pm

    Re: Broadband with limits

    Just keep in mind that Road Runner is not the same thing as AOL Broadband. Despite being units of the same company, they may as well be completely indepdendent companies for all they cooperate. Watch for completely different flavours of insanity from AOL Broadband as they try to make a go of this.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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