AOL disconnecting its dial-up
 

Believe it or not, AOL still makes up to $2 billion a year from its dial-up business. But parent Time Warner hopes to sell off the dial-up wing within the next few months. Bob Moon tries connecting with its users.


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Scott Jagow: The CEO of Time-Warner is looking for a buyer ASAP. He wants to sell AOL's dial-up business. Yes, the dial-up business. Now, who would want that? Well, it turns out there are plenty of people who are still using dial-up. Bob Moon has more.

Bob Moon: If you're thinking this sound is soooooo 1990's:

AOL SIGN-ON: Welcome! You've got mail!

You may be surprised to learn AOL still takes in more than $2 billion a year from dial-up subscribers.

Parent Time Warner hopes to sell that part of the business off within the next months and focus on its content and advertising. A rival -- perhaps Earthlink -- might benefit from adding more than 8.5 million dial-up customers.

Forrester Research analyst Sally Cohen says the business still has a future:

Sally Cohen: The cost of dial-up service has come down so much over the last couple of years, and perhaps might continue to come down as the market shrinks.

Cohen says dial-up's good enough for those who just want to check mail or read the news. And in the LA suburb of Manhattan Beach, Rob Combs thinks it's just safer:

Rob Combs: There's one thing about this dial-up -- it is slow, but it's also a very controlled, secure connection.

Combs admits it would be nice to have broadband -- especially when I suggested if he missed this story on the air he could always stream the audio over his dial-up Internet connection.

Combs: Hahaha!

Perhaps that reaction explains why AOL is telling this business:

AOL SIGN-OFF: Goodbye!

In Los Angeles, I'm Bob Moon for Marketplace.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/d...17/aol_dial_up