Derek, only time will tell, but I fear for the independent ISPs. It won't be their choice to throw in the towel, but rather their bankers and creditors. AOL doesn't have creditors like the small independents, since they are financed through public equity capital.
I have no great love for AOL, Compuserve, Netcom, or their big brethern. My small local ISP (Insync.net) is great, even though they use Ascend Maxen. The reason they are great, though, is because that maintain a strong ratio of modems to users. Never a busy. Never. Although, their ROK modems do like to disconnect for no good reason. |
