Topic: AOL

Remember AOL were offering free laptops to new customers a couple of months ago?

The offer is still open, but now AOL are offering a Playstation 3 to new customers who sign up to it's AOL Broadband Wireless Plus product. It comes with a (up to) 8 Mbps connection speed and has a 40GB download allowance, free connection and a wireless router are also thrown in, as is a AOL Talk PAYG Plan.

As with anything which is 'free' there are some conditions on the offer, for one thing it's subject to a 24 month minimum contract, although the PS3 is yours to keep after that time period. Potential customers outside an AOL LLU area and connected via BT's network will also have to pay an extra £10 a month. There is also a £14.99 delivery charge on both the PS3 and laptop.

Just after Orange announced that they were giving away 'free' laptops, AOL promptly did the same.

But now it's transpired that there is a limited number of £500 laptops to be given away, 100,000, and not until September so it will be on a first come first served basis. Both the Orange and AOL promotions have been criticised as customers can get far better broadband deal for the same money, and not get tied into a two year contract, although the lure of a laptop will no doubt attract many.

The Carphone Warehouse has been criticised for charging it's AOL customers and extra tenner if they are not on a LLU exchange.

uSwitch, the price comparison site, claimed the two-tier policy was unfair as it mainly affected those in rural areas who had little chance of their local exchange being upgraded. It called it a "a huge divide that emerges" and claimed that this would be a model that other ISPs would follow.

Carphone Warehouse responded saying that broadband prices have fallen 17 percent this year and that even non-LLU customers are still getting "a great-value-for-money broadband deal", although not sure a great deal as their LLU cousins. The response seems to be a typical 'political reply' where both the question and the problem is talked around.

Ofcom have replied to the problem:-

If ISPs decide on this two-tier policy, which makes financial sense to them, then customers can always vote with their feet.

AOL have decided to follow it's owner The Carphone Warehouse and ask punters not on any of it's LLU exchanges to cough up some more cash for their services.

This means that an AOL Silver package jumps from a respectable looking £14.99 to £24.99 which makes it seem unattractive compared to many deals around, especially as this also involves signing an 18 month contract.
As AOL only have 300 or so unbundled exchanges this is likely to affect around 40 percent of the UK population.

It's not known if this will affect current users of AOL products, but it seems likely that any increase would only be applied after the contract term has been reached.

ISPreview have reported that AOL, who is now owned by The Carphone Warehouse, has lost thousands of it's customer e-mails after a hiccup with it's archives. Reports of users losing thousands of mails is quoted, although the scale of the problem is unknown.

AOL deny any problems and have sent the boys out to investigate.

AOL have decided to change it's T&C's and to introduce a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) from 1st February 2007.

One part which will will be of interest to those who use AOL because of being an unlimited connection is the plan to introduce traffic shaping. Basically this means those who AOL decide are using their service excessively, by using P2P for example, will find that their transfer rates will be reduced.

Most of AOL's users will be unaffected by the change, but it is consistant with the growing trend among ISPs to try to discourage heavy users from residential products.

AOL Europe has a new top bod after president Karen Thompson resigned, leaving a space for AOL France CEO Carlo d'Asaro Biondo, to take over.

Thompson has been with AOL for 11 years, becoming CEO of AOL UK in 2001, and chairman in 2005, before taking on the role of president in March this year.

She leaves the job on a high note as advertising revenues at AOL are up 46 per cent, and it recently sold it's UK customer base for £370 million.

AOL is offering photographers a change to visit the big apple in it's latest competition.

The digital photography competition is to let users share life experiences with their counterparts through photo albums, with those wishing to enter uploading their photos on the AOL website using their AOL screen name.

The winner will get a three-night trip to New York for two, £500 spending money and a camera, although the must already have one to enter the competition.

If you feel the urge to enter you have until 12th November, with the winner announced on the 17th.

AOL is giving way a free anti-virus software package, based on technology from Kasperesky Lab.

Called Active Virus Shield, it will protect users from viruses, spyware, malware and Trojans before they attack, as well as real-time scanning of files and email. It updates itself hourly with the latest virus signatures rather than weekly as some anti-virus products which is a good thing.

Also included with the package is a security toolbar for Internet Explorer which includes a a password manager, pop-up blocking technology, and a link to the Whois domain registration database so allows users can find more information on suspect material or sites.

An email address, is all users will have to supply to use the service.

AOL in the US is looking to offer a free version of its service to customers of rival ISPs.

This would include both the AOL email service and it's traditionally subscription based content, with the ISP having to rely on advertising for it's revenue. But according to reports this would mean they they would have to find up to $2biillion (£1.1billion) to make up the shortfall.

Whether this will mean anything this side of the pond is doubtful, as the UK broadband market is very different from that of the US.

AOL has been quietly putting it's own kit in BT exchanges and now has 100,000 of it's broadband users connected by LLU.

In February AOL said  that it planned to invest £120m in unbundling exchanges and so far 200 have had equipment installed, which means that one in five UK LLU lines is owned by AOL. Not a bad feat as Bulldog has taken three years rack up 112,000 LLU customers.

AOL has more that 2 million UK customers, with 1.5 million on broadband, so it could soon see itself as the main alternative to BT.

AOL UK is looking for a buyer after being put up for sale by it's owners Time Warner.

After months of uncertainty investment bank Citigroup have been given the task of trying to find someone with deep pockets to take the ISP off their hands.
And when we say deep we mean deep, recently Google bought a 5% stake in AOL for a cool £540 million.

AOL UK has 2.2m customers, of which 1.3m connect via broadband, this makes the third largest UK ISP behind BT, and recently merged ntl/Telewest. It has 500 staff in Britain with a further 800 at a call centre in Ireland.

The British business is profitable, although specific figures have never been spelt out. AOL would prefer a buyer willing to allow it to continue to operate a content business in Britain, based around its portal.

Up to 4000 AOL users in the UK, Germany and the US have had their internet connection disabled by a security update.

The problem seems to have been a LiveUpdate patch issued by Symantec for it's Norton range of products, which saw users connections drop and then being unable to reconnect.

Users are advised to reconnect by dialup and update Norton products, which have been updated yet again to cure the problem.

AOL's email service seems to be back up and running after problems, reported by the Register earlier today.

The ISP blamed essential maintenance work in the US for the problems in the UK, with some users being unable to send or receive mails and some scared users temporarily  'losing' mails in their inbox.

A spokeswoman for AOL UK said that fewer than one per cent of its UK users have been affected, but this still results in several thousand having problems.

AOL has at last announced it's plans to join the Local Loop Unbundled (LLU) market, following rivals such as Wanadoo, Zen, PlusNet and a whole bunch of other ISP's

It has already carried out beta testing at the Battersea and Ealing exchanges, and so far has assembled a team of 100 people to oversee the large scale rollout. Initial costs are put at £50 million which will put it's kit into up to 300 exchanges, or 20% of the UK population. If this proves popular then it plans to increase the number of exchanges with it's own equipment in to 1000, or 50% of the population, this doesn't come cheap and will add another £70 million to the total bill, which is being funded by parted company Time Warner.

AOL is obviously looking forward as it's equipment will be ADSL2+ compatible, enabling speeds far in excess of the BT's current ADSLMax trials which stand at 8Mbps. With such a big player this is bound to worry a few BT execs, but it was only a mater of time before AOL entered into this market.

Warner Brothers, the parent group of AOL is preparing to make available for download thousands of old television shows, all free of charge and sponsored by advertising. The effort, dubbed In2TV, will roll out on AOL.com early next year and utilize a new video format called "AOL Hi-Q" that combines P2P distribution with Windows Media. Unfortunatley, the service at launch will be available in the US only.

The UK has seen its own flurry of interest in broadband TV lately. ITV recently launched a trial on the south coast providing local content for local people while BT plans to poll out its IPTV service in late summer 2006

AOL has taken top trumps from the likes of Wanadoo, Register.com, Ofcom, and Yahoo!, in a sponsered 5-aside football tournament benefit some very worthwhile causes.

Those benefiting from the event by taking a share of the £5250 raised, include :
Childnet International (www.childnet-int.org), a non-profit organisation working to make the Internet a safe place for children.
The British Liver Trust (www.britishlivertrust.org.uk), which advocates on behalf of those suffering from liver disease and funds medical research on the causes and treatments for the disease.
Computer Aid International (www.computeraid.org), the world’s largest non-profit supplier of computers to developing countries.

Congrats to AOL in their win of the inaugural Charity Cup.

AOL have this month started a small scale trial in London with downstream speeds of up to 8Mbps through the ISPs investment in local loop unbundling (LLU).

The Register reports that details are few and far between except to cite that AOL have already placed an order with BT to unbundle some exchanges (no lists, sorry) and some feel an official announcement/trial by AOL could be launched "within the next couple of weeks".

We look forward to it.

AOL is showing an exclusive preview clip of the forthcoming film Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire to broadband users.

The clip is available to all visitors, whether AOL users or not, and is part of an AOL - Harry Potter season, with the ISP also showing a live webcast of the film's premier in London on November 6th, with a on demand service available  following the event.

www.aol.co.uk/harrypotter to check it out.

AOL has launched a range of new initiatives to help protect its customers from falling foul to phishing attacks.

Phishing attacks use fraudulent e-mail and fake web sites which are designed to look identical to legitimate sites and emails to gather sensitive personal information such as passwords and bank details.
AOL says it is now blocking roughly eight million phishing attempts against its members each day, due to it employing a a range of new protections, including:

• Early warning systems that check newly-registered domains names to see if they are similar to legitimate site names, indicating they may be used for phishing.
• Web crawling systems that constantly explore the web looking for suspicious sites that imitate the text or appearance of real sites.
• URL analysis that checks more than a million suspicious URLs referred by AOL members each day to determine if they are phishing sites.
• Technical countermeasures that target fraudulent sites to help reduce the risk of personal information being gathered on those sites.

Tatiana Platt, AOL senior vice president, said: “The only difference between a phisher and a mugger is that a phisher uses a keyboard and not a gun.”

AOL UK is going to give 20,000 of it's customers a £5 credit on their next bill.

It's not all good news as those receiving the credit are those who's connection was cut off by AOL last week. The company sent a pop-up to around 50,000 it's customers informing them of an ongoing network upgrade, but nearly half of those who clicked the pop-up and followed upgrade instructions had their connection cut.

AOL's helpdesk was flooded with worried customers, and to make matters worse for them in August this year the number the was change from a free 0800 an 0870 number costing 8p a minute.

AOL have decided to scrap it's free telephone support, leaving punters to pick up the cost of phoning for help. The new charges will come into effect of 1st August and charges will depend on the time of the call, although a maximum charge of 7.5p per minute will be in force.

Not many ISP's offer free phone support via an 0800 number and his was a selling point for AOL, but it seems that users maybe taking too much of an advantage of the free calls.

Customers who use the AOL Talk service can still call for free though

AOL is a haven to 'Zombie' a report out claims, not literal zombies but infected computers.

Prolexic Technologies, who provide companies with solutions to avoid such attacks, say that AOL and other large ISP's providers serve as launching pads for most “denial of service” (DDOS) attacks, these simultaneously  flood a network with fake packets, preventing legitimate traffic from accessing a website or system.

This should not come as much of a surprise as AOL currently have 8 million members worldwide, more than any other provider. To combat the threat AOL recently introduced antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall services for its members, but this requires users to up date their computers regularly, something the stereotypical AOL user would have trouble with.

AOL were upbeat with the news, even claiming it was a victory.

AOL's 2GB email facility, which we rumoured last month, has now gone live.

Users can access the service though it's messaging software AIM, version 5.9 is out now. As you'd expect AOL's US customers get the first look-in, with the software rolling out this week which will give users the chance to sign up for the email service.

Separately, AOL announced it will give its US ISP customers unlimited email storage, so users "will be able to keep every single message and attachment they ever receive, if they wish," according to AOL marketing executive Mark Greatrex.

So no need to delete all those spam emails....

First it was Google, then BTYahoo! and now AOL are offering a webmail service with a large Inbox.

It has begun the beta testing of it's free webmail service, aim.com, which will be available to all net users who have a free AIM screen name, currently is 5.9million. The service is available from AOL's Instant Messenger service and includes a whole host of extras such as spam and email virus protection and 2GB of online email storage.

AOL has responded to the rumours that it is moving away from it's traditional content content based products in favour of VoIP and broadband only sevices.

Whispers started when AOL started a  reorganisation of the programming department, pooling production teams over the past three months, but they now claim this was to increase the focus on broadband content due to gaining nearly 500,000 broadband users last year.

 The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have been busy with broadband claims recently, first Telewest, then Wanadoo, and now AOL have been under fire for misleading ads.

AOL had claimed of it's latest software, "AOL 9.0 on broadband featuring: Radio@AOL. Over 100 CD quality radio stations...", but according to the ASA some listeners, in particular listening circumstances, might perceive a difference between the broadcast service and the best audio quality that could be delivered using the CD medium

The ASA was concerned that the claim "CD quality radio stations" implied absolute equivalence between the audio quality of the broadcast and uncompressed CD sound. Because the AOL could not prove that, the Authority concluded that the claim could mislead and advised them to amend the claim.

Full techincal details at the ASA website.

AOL UK has launched its third annual Innovation in the Community Awards, which is aimed at encouraging innovative use of the Internet

Previous winners have seen a diverse range of uses, from using a large rug, a broadband Internet connection, and a large screen to take children on a “magic carpet” ride around the world, to a 24 hour community youth radio station.
On offer are thirty award packages, each consisting of £2,000 and a complimentary Broadband Gold account for one year,

Full details and an application form can be found on the AOL website.

AOL have revamped their connection speeds and pricing, which will being the company more in line with it's competitors

It's existing Silver, Gold and Platinum products have had a speed increase effectively doubling the downstream speed for users, at no extra cost.
Prices for the Silver (500Kbps), Gold (1Mbps) and Platinum (2Mbps) services are £17.99, £24.99 & £29.99 respectively. Happy users will also note that there isn't any download or time usage capping.

In a separate move the Dixons Group will start selling AOL wireless broadband packages in it's 1100 stores in the UK.
The wireless package includes a Netgear wireless router, with software designed to make it easier to set up a home network. Firewall, antivirus and anti-spam software from McAfee are also bundled with the offering.

AOL is ditching support for Usenet in the not too distant future.

AOL customers trying to access Usenet, (often called newsgroups, but essentially a varied set of discussion groups available on the internet) "from early 2005" will be met with AOL message advising to look towards Google Groups instead, a web interface to usenet.

As the reason ? Simply a lack of use service according to an AOL spokesman.

AOL UK has dropped "Broadband Silver"'s monthly subscription down to £17.99 (inclusive of VAT). The ISPs entry level product comes with no usage limitations, free setup, and for a limited time (until the end of 2004) a free ADSL modem is included to boot.

AOL also today announced their intentions to trial a 2Mbit product later in the year, available initially only to its estimated 2.3m broadband subscribers. Details are sketchy (including the important things, like price), but we'll keep our ear to the ground on this one.

AOL has been given a slapped wrist over a recent advertising campaign which saw the ISP proudly proclaim their 1Mb ADSL product. Unfortunatley, the advert drew a complaint from one viewer, ultimately leading the adverts forced ammendment.

Adverts in the national press boasted "AOL Introduces 1Mb Broadband ... FAST JUST GOT FASTER". It was the fact that the product was unlikely to achieve a 1Mb rating due to contention, which drew one reader to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority.

AOL tried to defend the claim with the evidence that describing a product as "1Mb" was a standard industry definition, and that speeds indicated by this were obtainable. The ASA saw differently, and AOL have added the phrase "upto" to the description of their product.

A number of complaints have been received by the ASA in respect of ISPs failing to fully qualify that magical phrase "up to" that many ADSL'ers have come to recognise. One of the more recent cases saw a complaint upheld against BTOpenworld over claims of "40 times faster"

The AOL Adjudication can be found on the ASA website.

AOL have joined the sub-512kb (sorry £20) club with another low speed 'broadband' offering.

It's latest offering called Broadband Silver is only 256Kbps which seems to be the current trend amongst the larger, more commercial ISP's. The latest product comes in at £19.99 per month, but new users will get the obligatory free modem.
One thing which is different with AOL is that there will be no usage or download limits applied, which has to be applauded, as many of the low speed (sorry cost!) offerings have quite restrictive limit's placed upon them.

Broadband seems to be heading in two directions, on the one hand ADSL users are being offered connections which are restrictive as to their speed and usability, whereas cable users have been offered free speed increases, and talk of even more!

AOL broadband members will soon be able to play Who Wants To Be A Million are after AOL announced they have teamed up with Celador International to develop a special broadband video version of the hit show.

The game features exclusive footage and camera angles all shot in the studio, and Chris Tarrant who gives feedback after each question.
AOL Broadband members must correctly answer up to 15 consecutive questions to be in with an opportunity of winning the top prize. and points are earned based on the speed of response for each correct answer.

Each AOL Broadband account receives three free game credits a week, after which each game play costs 50p.  Members can also opt to use their lifelines at any time including the well-known 50:50 and Ask The Audience options, plus a new and exclusive "Search the Web with AOL" lifeline that gives them 60 seconds to use the AOL search engine to find the answer.
AOL Broadband is offering a monthly prize of £5,000 to the player with the highest cumulative score each month. Weekly prizes of £250 are also on offer to the player who reaches and correctly answers the 32,000-point question fastest.

Fingers on the buzzer!!!

The Register today reports that at a recent gathering of ISP representatives, AOL have again citing their determination of calling for inreased competition in the broadband wholesale market.

The ISP Forum held at the Hilton Kensington, London, was a 3 day event, attended by many of the major players in the broadband market, including BT Openworld, ntl, Telewest, Yahoo!, Bulldog Communications and Thus.

"2003 was a fantastic year for the UK's broadband industry .. But we want to see wholesale competition delivered this year.", said David Carr, AOL UK VP of broadband.

Earlier this month in response to the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee’s Broadband Market report, AOL shared the view of the Commitee that inreased wholesale competition is "critical if content providers are to have the confidence to make the investment required to deliver the benefits of broadband to the broadest possible audience in the UK.”

Whats unclear from AOLs comments at the ISP Forum, is exactly how the company proposes increased competition is achieved. Are we likely to see AOL starting LLU operations akin to Bulldog & Easynet ?

AOL have responded to the recent announcement from BT of it's new 1Mb offering. They had previously stated that it's promotional price of £34.99 a month was to finish at the end of January.

Obviously with an eye on BT's own offering AOL have announced that the promotion will run for "an indefinite period", and will not charge users for upgrading.  This gives a clear advantage to AOL, as a BT user would have to pay anything up to £35+VAT for a change in service.

Following evidently succesfull trials, AOL have publically launched their 1mbit ADSL offering.

Priced at £34.99 the deal includes the usual free suspects of a free modem and filters, but is however subject to a 12 month contract.

Whilst AOL's 512k broadband package is available both on and off the BT network via business partner NTL, AOL's 1Mbit offering is available only via a BT line.

More information about the service here.

AOL have announced that it has secured a series of deals with UK broadcasters to stream UK soccer highlights to it's broadband users.

A deal has been arranged between AOL and BSkyB, Granada & PremiumTV to allow then to show delayed highlights and interviews for the top Premiership teams and those of the lower levels. In all they will have access to 85 of the 92 league teams.

An AOL spokesman said "We were looking for what we knew would be key content to drive broadband subscriptions, and we knew we had to get football this year,"

AOL have been keen to provide content rich facilities to it's broadband users, this month, as reported by UK-Bug, they have provided coverage of the Rugby World Cup.

This is when several reports suggest that rich content is not enough to encourage people to take up broadband services. But the AOL approach is in line with it's dial-up services which have been so successful, maybe they know different?

AOL have signed an exclusive deal to broadcast live audio and delayed video streams of the Rugby World Cup matches.

Subscribers of the broadband ISP will not however, be able to watch video footage until 24 hours after the match has taken place - presumably to protect tradition satellite & terrestrial media companies from loosing viewers.

The lineup from AOL includes ...

Live audio commentary on every match
Whether you are at work or at home there is no need to miss a minute of Rugby World Cup 2003 as AOL Broadband brings you all the action with live commentary on every match.

Video previews of all the games
AOL Broadband gives you previews for each match, showcasing every team's previous World Cup form to keep you in the picture.

Full video replays of every match
Sit back and enjoy 80 minutes of top class rugby action. AOL Broadband has full coverage of every game only 24 hours after it has been played.

Match-day roundup
Catch the day's action with a video summary of the key moments. Watch highlights and interviews with team members every day on AOL Broadband.

Classic clips
Watch classic matches, golden moments and the top tries scored in previous Rugby World Cup tournaments.