Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Microcap & Penny Stocks : XSNI - X-Stream Network -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: makin_dough99 who wrote (282)	5/10/1999 8:33:00 PM
From: UPTICK	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3519

AOL FREE INTERNET NEWS....GO XSNI The best Notebooks. Click here. AOL Europe slashes prices By Bloomberg News Special to CNET News.com May 10, 1999, 9:25 a.m. PT URL: news.com LONDON--AOL Europe will cut its flat-fee charge by more than 40 percent in the United Kingdom, the first step in a broader new pricing and portal strategy it plans to start this autumn, as it takes on popular providers of free Internet access. AOL Europe, a venture between America Online and Germany's Bertelsmann, said AOL U.K. will cut its fee to 9.99 pounds ($16.25) a month, from 16.95 pounds ($27.63), from June 1. The move comes as AOL tries to counter the success of free Internet service providers in the United Kingdom. It took only three months for a free Internet access service by Dixons Group, Britain's largest electronics and appliances retailer, to steal the No. 1 title from AOL. Freeserve has gained 1.3 million users, twice the number of AOL users, in just seven months of running. "We want to turn the meter off so that people stay online longer," said Andreas Schmidt, AOL Europe's CEO, in an interview. However, AOL would not go as far as providing free Internet access. "Free is not a sustainable business model," Schmidt said. AOL plans on introducing within six months a flat-fee package for both subscription and phone charges, initially in the United Kingdom and later in other European countries. It also will start country-based Web portal sites, with content supplied by about 300 partners such as the Economist magazine and Deutsche Bank. Freeserve has become the United Kingdom's third-most-visited portal site. AOL is trying to counter that success by starting portal sites, or gateways to other Internet sites, first in the United Kingdom and Germany, using technology that runs Netscape's Netcenter portal site and by providing specialized news and entertainment content. To that end, AOL said it will market in the United Kingdom eBay, the top online auction company, as part of a worldwide agreement for which eBay paid $75 million. It also will advertise Verio, the world's largest domain-based Web hosting company. AOL is not among the top-five portal sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, the three biggest European Internet markets, where Yahoo leads. AOL Europe has 2.8 million users.

To: makin_dough99 who wrote (282)	5/10/1999 8:35:00 PM
From: UPTICK	Respond to of 3519

MORE GOOD NEWS ! XSNI GO Why free Net reigns The free Internet access model works in Europe due to a quirk in the telecommunications framework that allows phone companies to share revenue from local phone calls. In the United Kingdom, the local phone company retains between 33 percent and 60 percent of the charge, with the balance going to the network operator, which shares its revenue with the free ISP. Users in the United Kingdom pay between 1 pence (2 cents) and 4 pence per minute in local telephone charges. To compensate for the phone charges, companies such as Prudential, Britain's largest insurer; Barclays, the second-largest bank; W.H. Smith, the largest book retailer; Tesco, the largest food retailer; and the Arsenal Football Club removed subscription fees. Even British Telecommunications, the country's largest phone company, scrapped its pay-as-you-go service in favor of a free one. The model has been copied by other European companies, such as Germany.net in Germany, Kingfisher in France, Tiscali in Italy, and Econophone, Sunrise, and Span in Switzerland. European businesses, from phone companies to book retailers and banks to sporting clubs, are scrambling to offer free Internet access and muster enough users to attract advertising money and commission on sales through their sites. "Providing free access is quickly becoming the cost of doing business on the Internet," said Nick Jones, an analyst with Jupiter Communications. "It is not an extra feature." Switching to a free model, however, is too costly an alternative for AOL. Subscription fees accounted for almost 85 percent of the Dulles, Virginia-based company's $1.8 billion worldwide revenue in the first half of fiscal 1999. It argues that it takes more than just a free service to attract users.