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

To: donkeyman who wrote (17325)	5/17/1999 8:44:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 41369

[AOL] AOL DOWN 1 3/4 TO 123 1/2 IN INSTINET PRE-MARKET TRADING. CBS MarketWatch - May 17, 1999 08:06

To: donkeyman who wrote (17325)	5/17/1999 8:48:00 AM
From: Steeny	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

We spoke of these free services last week. Does anyone in their right mind think these companies can stay free forever? They are relying on advertising revenue which AOL still dominates. There are so many of these free services, they are just cutting each other's throats. What happens when they have to start charging?

To: donkeyman who wrote (17325)	5/17/1999 9:48:00 AM
From: tang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

Donkeyman: here are the reasons why you should not worry about UK's free ISP in USA or other parts of the world unless: (1)MSFT is in but it won't for the DOJ concern (2)IBM is in but it won't because DOJ concern plus too much fuss (3)T is in but it won't for DOJ concern and it is too busy to lay pipes (4)GM, GE are in but they won't because not their business (5)Bells, GTE, SPRINT, MCIWorlcom are in but they won't because they are already giving away the local connections for free, and they are making good money by offering themselves as ISPs, why should they give up their shares? (6)DSL, CABLE, Wireless's prices are down to $20/month and all houses in USA have them so they can give away regular ISP connection fee to lure customer for $20/month high speed connection, this won't happen until year 2010 or later. (7) Any big business can go for this free ISP like UK's but why they don't here? Because they have no idea whether it will make money or not, better rely on established leader like AOL to help them into the internet. (8) Can you imagine all stores try their own free ISP to get customers? there is no BELLs to share the income of connectivities with them, they have to put up a lots of money ahead to establish customer base to lure advertisement! Now, who are the best free ISP candidates? The Bells! They have all pipes into everyone's house, and they know how. If they go for the free ISP model then AOL will be a dead issue, but will Bells go for that model? You tell me. As for anyone else in USA to try the free ISP they have to have a lots of money to lay the phone hubs so people who want to get on can get on, but do you know what? the largest free ISP, the Netzero.com only has a handful local numbers available, only handful, mine and a lot people who live in the township of 200,000 population neighborhoods don't have a free local number, yes, you can use other township numbers, but that is a long-distance connection! Besides, I have friends try the free connections, guess what? they are all now back to paying ISP, why? the ISP's servers broke down so often, constant maintanience, they can't take it anymore! Free ISP needs a lots of phone hubs, needs more servers and needs more sharp tech. to maintain their lines, can they afford that? Unless Warren Buffet/Bill G./... are willing to put in their money. There are at least a dozen free ISP around, why none of them is taking off? You tell me! I rest my case!

To: donkeyman who wrote (17325)	5/17/1999 2:37:00 PM
From: Mary Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

Free Internet Service in Europe... I responded to this earlier...but will do it again... This is necessary in Europe because LOCAL PHONE calls are NOT FREE in Europe. I used to live in Germany and you had to pay by the minute for phone use...even if it was to your next door neighbor. So, when Europeans are surfing the web they are paying for that local phone call...and paying dearly I might add. Our phone had a minute meter built into it...so we could keep track of the time spent chatting. If you were paying by the minute to use your phone...you would want your Internet service to be FREE too! It is necessary for AOL to be competitive in that European market...but the same incentive would not apply in the US...at least not at this time! Mary