America Online has entered the low-priced internet
service provider market with Netscape-branded service costing users
around $10 a month.
Customers can get the Netscape unlimited internet access service
for just $1 a month until 1 March, after which the price will go up
to $9.95 a month. The service includes nationwide access,
personalised e-mail addresses for customers and a search service
powered by Google.
AOL also offers unlimited dialup access for $19.95 a month or
$199 a year under the CompuServe brand. It also sells a
$23.90-a-month unlimited dialup 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 $14.95, along with
five hours of dialup access, for customers buying their own
broadband connections. A package with a broadband connection,
called the AOL for Broadband-Cable/DSL Plan, costs $54.95.
The introduction of the Netscape service indicates that AOL
recognises the two basic kinds of internet users: those who want
high speed and those looking for the lowest price, said Marcel
Nienhuis, an analyst at The Radicati Group.
"I think AOL is being slightly outmatched on their prices by
MSN," Nienhuis added. Microsoft's unlimited MSN 8 Dial-Up Internet
Service costs $9.95 a month for the first six months and $21.95 a
month after that. There are also free ISPs that are supported by
advertising, but many users do not want to look at the ads, he
admitted.
Consumers, especially first-time internet users, also are
looking for an easy-to-use portal to the internet with personalised
content, an area in which Netscape is well known, said Nienhuis.
AOL, on the other hand, has become better known for its
communications tools, such as AOL Instant Messenger. he believed
the company did not want to blur the AOL brand by adding another
service.
Netscape was the first widely commercialised web browser,
beginning in 1994. Netscape Communications was sold to AOL in
1998.
Stephen Lawson writes for IDG News Service