Thatās the first time Iāve seen āgame-changeā as verb.
This, exactly.
Iām very confident that somewhere, some accountant has the exact numbers available for the dollar value of the monthly revenues from people who are still getting an automatic deduction from their bank account for a dial-up service they last used in 2005.
And I would be willing to bet itās a hefty chunk of change.
But what about Shingy?
Please, please, please, let VZ experience a repeat of the ābrilliantā AOL/Time Warner synergiesā¦
Heās safe. Shingy took the old adage that āthe graves are full of indispensable menā to heart; and succeeded in making himself so magnificently dispensible that death itself has removed him from its disposition matrix.
If they were to put Shingy under the last manager that I worked for, they would drop him like a sack full of warm V.D.
Full disclosure: I worked for VZ, and GTE before that (I voted against that merger). VZ finally laid me off, and Iām still bitter about it 9 years later. GTE was relatively laid back (as corporate cultures go).
Someone needs to create an animation of media/telco/wireless/internet/etc companies depicted as prehistoric beasts that just consume each other randomly along a timeline. Thatās the only thing I see in my head anymore when I read these kinds of headlines.
AOL was still in business???
āAOL is back and now we are joining forces with Verizon to build the best media technology company in the world.ā
Cue: Infinite laugh tracks
Imagine if Shingy did the recaps for Game of Thrones.
Well, change is a verb, so game must be an adverb. The correct form is āto change gamely.ā
Iām saddened by this news, because I donāt hate Verizon as much as I hate TWC, so I canāt really exult in their self-destructive folly.
Believe it or not, there are still people that live where there is NO broadband service available and all there is, is dial-up. Donāt be so quick to judge against all the dial up customers. Some of them may actually need the service still. Donāt be provincial, itās a big country with LOTS of empty spaces and people that cannot afford satellite or whatever.
Itās a misnomer, since there are no dials on telephones. Not only that, but dials didnāt go up, they went around.
Iām sure there are some people who still actually use AOL as an ISP. But Iāll bet there are even more people who donāt even own a modem any more but pay the AOL bill because they think itās necessary to keep their @aol.com e-mail address.
AOLās 2014 annual report shows that they are shedding subscribers (āThe number of domestic AOL subscribers was 2.2 million, 2.5 million and 2.8 million at December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively.ā) but theyāre also squeezing more cash out of them (āAverage monthly subscription revenue per AOL subscriber was $20.70, $19.85 and $18.39 for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively.ā). But these are all very long-term subscribers (āThe average paid tenure of the remaining domestic AOL subscribers has been increasing, and was approximately 14.0 years, 12.9 years and 11.8 years for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively.ā). Subscriber revenue is a shrinking portion of AOLās revenues, but is still significant (it accounted for 24%, 28% and 32% of AOLās total revenues in 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively).
Thank you for the prescriptive lecture, but Iām a bit confusedā¦
Where in my post did I say that no one has any need or use for dial-up anymore?
What I did say was that a lot of people are still paying AOL for something they stopped using a long time ago, and that I suspect thatās a measurable and meaningful part of AOLās revenue stream.
Is it possible that you have conflated my distaste for AOLās business model with contempt for everyone who uses dial-up?
I hope this doesnāt mean the end of AIM.
(Donāt laugh, itās still better than giving your IMs to Facebook)
Weāre frowning at the 99.99% of the customers being scammed by this lurching crapbeast, not dial-up users.
I know people who are in that boat. Dial-up, or a combination of dial-up uploads and satellite downloads.
That being said, I call your attention to the third paragraph in this article:
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