America Online is entering the low-priced ISP market with a service under the Netscape name that will be priced at about $10 monthly.
Customers can get the Netscape unlimited Internet access service for just $1 per month until March 1, according to a registration page on the Web site of AOL, a division of New York-based Time Warner. After that, the price will go up to $10 monthly.
The service includes nationwide access, personalized e-mail addresses for customers, and a search service powered by Google, according to the site.
AOL today offers unlimited dial-up access for $20 monthly or $199 per year under the CompuServe brand. It also sells a $23.90-per-month unlimited dial-up service that comes with AOL 9.0 Optimized, a collection of enhancements such as e-mail, instant messaging, and exclusive content. Those enhancements are also available for $15, along with 5 hours of dial-up access, for customers who buy their own broadband connections. A package with a broadband connection, called the AOL for Broadband-Cable/DSL Plan, costs $55, according to AOL's Web site.
Customer Choice
The introduction of the Netscape service indicates that AOL recognizes the two basic kinds of Internet users: those who want high speed and those looking for the lowest price, says Marcel Nienhuis, an analyst at The Radicati Group, a consulting company in Palo Alto, California.
"I think AOL is being slightly outmatched on their prices by MSN," Nienhuis says. Microsoft's unlimited MSN 8 Dial-Up Internet Service costs $10 per month for the first six months and $22 per month after that, according to the company's Web site. Microsoft also offers several alternate pricing plans, including a lower rate for members who access MSN via another ISP.
Also available is a selection of free ISPs that are supported by advertising, but many users don't want to look at the ads, he added. And recently, a handful of inexpensive dial-up ISP services have drawn interest.
Meanwhile, both Microsoft and AOL, as well as other ISPs, are trying to boost revenues by coaxing members to sign up 111770 for new services such as additional storage.
Alternate Brand
Consumers, especially first-time Internet users, are looking for an easy-to-use portal to the Internet with personalized content, an area in which Netscape is well known, Nienhuis adds.
AOL, on the other hand, has become better known for its communications tools, such as AOL Instant Messenger, he notes. The company probably didn't want to blur the AOL brand by adding another service, and with good reason: AOL leads in ISP market share in North America, according to the Radicati Group's research.
Netscape was the name of the first widely commercialized Web browser, released in 1994. Netscape Communications, which distributed it, was sold to AOL in 1998.
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