Yahoo!, MCI plan joint online service
Reuters Story - January 12, 1998 19:36
%ENT %US %BUS %TEL %ADV %NEWS YHOO MCIC AOL CNWK FON NSCP MSFT V%REUTER P%RTR
By Eric Auchard
NEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Internet search pioneer Yahoo!
Inc. and telecommunications giant MCI Communications
Corp. said Monday they would offer a jointly branded
online service, putting them into more direct competition with
online superpower America Online Inc.
The service -- dubbed "Yahoo! Online powered by MCI
Internet" -- will provide consumers a simplified way of using
the Internet via MCI dial-up connections available nationwide.
Yahoo! Online will be available in March. Pricing for
Internet access has not been set yet, officials said, but added
that customers will be offered a variety of pricing options
competitive with the $19.95 per-month industry standard.
The effort follows a similar move by CNET Inc.,
which last month joined forces with Sprint Corp., to
offer a customized version of its Snap! online service as the
starting point for users of Sprint's Internet access service.
Yahoo! Online will be aimed at the enormous numbers of new
computer users expected to sign up for Internet services in the
coming year, executives at the two companies said.
"We really believe we can be very successful in capturing
the new growth in the (Internet access) market," said David
Trachtenberg, MCI's director of brand marketing.
To succeed Yahoo! Online must convert the millions of
occassional users of Yahoo!'s existing Internet navigation
sites to commit to a full-scale Internet access service.
By comparison, America Online claims more than 10 million
full-time subscribers to its combined Internet access and
content service, making it far and away the largest provider of
online access in the world.
The Yahoo! Online service brings together Yahoo!'s
information content and merchant services and MCI's
high-capacity telecommunications network backbone and customer
service staff.
Officials at the two companies stressed that Yahoo would
continue to focus on providing information content while MCI
would handle network access and customer service functions.
One of the larger Internet access providers -- but with
fewer subscribes than AOL -- is MCI long-distance phone
archrival AT&T Corp., whose service is called AT&T Worldnet.
The proposed Yahoo! Online service is designed to simplify
the process of connecting to the Internet for customers seeking
an alternative to America Online, which, while offering
customers Internet access, requires them to use AOL's
proprietary browser software.
By contrast, executives at Yahoo! and MCI said they were
weighing their options with regard to which open-standard -- as
opposed to proprietary -- browser to include as part of the
Yahoo Online service.
They said a decision on whether to include Netscape
Communications Corp.'s Navigator or Microsoft Corp.'s
Internet Explorer browser software would be announced
when the service is launched at the end of the first quarter.
Yahoo! Online also will offer customers a brand-name
alternative to the thousands of local Internet access providers
now in operation.
The service will be marketed to Yahoo! Internet users,
including those who have an existing Internet connection at
work but are seeking a service for Internet access from home.
MCI also plans to market the service to its long-distance
customers, the officials said.
Yahoo! Online will offer subscribers nationwide access to
the Internet with local phone numbers in major metropolitan
areas.
Yahoo! is the world's leading Internet navigational
service, claiming more than 26 million customers for its
services a month, who can choose from a menu of news, sports,
stock quotes, travel, entertainment and weather information.
Yahoo! also said it plans to build on its relationships
with nearly 300 content, products, and services partners to
provide Yahoo! Online subscribers with new premium content and
services.
Other services will include free member communication
services, including electronic mail, chat, classified ads and a
variety of online shopping opportunities.
Yahoo! Online will be jointly promoted by MCI and Yahoo!
-- New York newsdesk, 212-859-1700 |
