RSS
Subscribe to magazine
Follow us on:
  • Recommend:
  • 0 Comments

AOL Reacts to Heavy Demand

Initiatives include improving infrastructure and spending less on marketing.

By Ed Golden, PCWorld   

America Online officials today announced a series of additional measures to address the extraordinary demand for its service. The announcement came a day after AOL, which faces several consumer lawsuits, experienced a temporary outage.

Steve Case, chairman and chief executive officer of AOL, said the level of busy signals that members have experienced since the new rate system began were greater than officials had anticipated.

Among the initiatives that Case outlined:

  • AOL will increase its previously announced investment to expand system capacity from $250 million to $350 million. Included is the groundbreaking next month on a 180,000-square-foot data center.
  • Between now and June, AOL will increase the current 200,000-plus modems in AOLnet by 75 percent to improve connectivity, creating the capacity to handle an additional 6 million sessions daily.
  • The company will seek ways to increase capacity beyond these levels and will promote alternative ways to get AOL through work or school connections.
  • AOL will add 600 customer support representatives over the next six months, bringing the total to more than 4,500.
  • Officials said AOL also will sharply reduce marketing and advertising, including pulling its %dquotJetsons%dquot TV ad campaign and sharply reduce the distribution of free trial disks--including halting mailings to the cities with the most severe busy-signal problems.

Would you recommend this story? YES NO

  • Recommend:
  • 0 Comments

  • Become an Android authority

    Play music or games, run productivity apps and essential utilities.

    Get the Superguide now!

Lenovo Laptop Deals

Subscribe to the Daily Technology News Newsletter - 7 days a week

See All Newsletters »
Today's Special Offers
Editors' Picks