I don't know if anyone has posted this yet as their are way too many messages for me to keep up now. I metioned a month or two ago that they should undercut AOL.....
MCI undercuts ISPs
By Matthew Broersma, ZDNet
Not long after America Online raised its prices to $21.95 a month, MCI Internet, operated by long-distance provider MCI, has responded by offering monthly Net
access for $14.95.
The pricing strategy (which is only available to MCI long-distance customers) could be the beginning of a trend by telecommunications companies to undercut
smaller ISPs, according to industry observers.
MCI (MCIC) announced the move last week and has been hyping it in high-profile print and television ads for the past few days.
Observers see the new pricing plan mainly as a way to get a competitive edge against MCI's long-distance competitors. But it has the side effect of undercutting
regional ISPs, which usually charge about $19.95 a month.
"Telecommunications behemoths, such as MCI, own their own backbones and can offer packages of low rates, consolidated billing, and national network access to
their customers," said a brief by analysts at Zona Research Inc., base in Redwood City, Calif. "This offers them an unfair advantage over ISPs that lack such
extensive resources." |
