To: Brian K Crawford who wrote (29795 ) 8/21/1999 9:57:00 PM From: Brian K Crawford Read Replies (1) | Respond to
a few more nuggets:The Company intends to make its interactive online services available on new and future platforms or devices, such as televisions, wireless telephones, hand-held or pocket devices, online appliances, and smart phones, as consumer demand and technology and commercial viability permit. The Company is developing versions of its interactive online software that are customized for use on the various platforms. Features that may be made available on the different platforms include e-mail, news, stock quotes, electronic commerce and instant messages. The Company's next generation software for the AOL service, AOL 5.0, which will be introduced in the fall of 1999, will include the new feature AOL Plus, which will enable members to connect to the AOL service through high-speed broadband technologies, including DSL, cable, satellite and wireless, and will provide additional online content to members connecting through such broadband technologies. The expanded content will include video, games, music and online catalogue shopping features. The Company has formed strategic alliances with each of Bell Atlantic, SBC Communications, Ameritech Corp. and GTE Corp. to use new DSL technology to make available a high-speed upgrade connection to subscribers, with the initial roll out beginning in the summer of 1999. By the end of 1999, the Company expects to offer a high-speed broadband upgrade to serve more than 70 percent of AOL members and will cover nearly 16 million homes.
