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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Fulop who wrote (15246)	5/6/1999 12:01:00 PM
From: Rico Staris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

write up on aol....check it out... 216.46.228.90 AOL organized 22 other companies against the Communications Decency Act on the grounds that it violated free speech. It didn't want Big Government involved. AOL testified before the United States Congress in support of the Internet Tax Freedom Act. It didn't want Big Government taxing e-commerce. AOL is hollering for federal help to force it's competitors to open up their cable lines to his company. Now AOL invites Big Government to get involved in regulating the Internet. Where we come from, that's hypocrisy of the highest order. AOL has more than 15 million subscribers and they're adding new customers at a rate of 17,000 per day. It made almost $100 million in profits on sales of almost $3 billion. AOL bought Netscape for $4 billion so it is capable of competing successfully in the marketplace. Several years ago, it decided it would develop an infrastructure for the fast delivery of Internet data but then it decided against it and sold its national network to WorldCom for $1.2 billion in stock and other considerations. It made business decisions that may or may not prove correct. Now it must live with the consequences of its decisions instead of running to the government for favored treatment. That's like Goliath demanding extra help in fighting David. AOL is the largest Internet service provider in the world. But not all of AOL's subscribers are happy campers. More than any other complaint, their customers find AOL to be slow, unreliable, and unwieldy. There's a need for speed that AOL is not meeting. Cable lines mean high speed connections, graphics that are rich in detail, and the easy downloading of audio and video materials. Customers get to choose which Internet provider suits their needs and that's what free market competition is all about. No one is clamoring for Government Action except AOL. Besides its slow speed, AOL has other problems. While they fight Internet censorship (even going to bat for the free speech rights of a pro-Klan group), they were less tolerant of a website entitled, www.aolsucks.com. That one hit too too close for comfort and AOL lawyers wrote one of those legal letters threatening to sue their pants off. Here's our suggestion to AOL: Concentrate on improving the speed and reliability of your own product. Privacy is vitally important to Internet users. We don't want the information we seek or the services and products we buy placed in the wrong hands. We don't want our names sold to direct mailers or rented to telemarketers. What we do on the Internet is our own private business. AOL customers were outraged when AOL was caught selling subscribers' phone numbers and credit histories to telemarketers. Instead of admitting his mistake, AOL CEO Steve Case wrote subscribers a weak letter saying their names were not actually being sold. Not only that, 36 Attorneys General came after AOL for selling over a million customers new on-line subscriptions...without upgrading its technology enough to handle them all. It's Time for AOL to Get Its Act Together.