Thatâs the first time Iâve seen âgame-changeâ as verb.
This, exactly.
Iâm 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 itâs a hefty chunk of change.
But what about Shingy?
Please, please, please, let VZ experience a repeat of the âbrilliantâ AOL/Time Warner synergiesâŚ
Heâs safe. Shingy took the old adage that âthe graves are full of indispensable menâ 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 Iâm 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. Thatâs the only thing I see in my head anymore when I read these kinds of headlines.
AOL was still in business???
âAOL is back and now we are joining forces with Verizon to build the best media technology company in the world.â
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 âto change gamely.â
Iâm saddened by this news, because I donât hate Verizon as much as I hate TWC, so I canât 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. Donât be so quick to judge against all the dial up customers. Some of them may actually need the service still. Donât be provincial, itâs a big country with LOTS of empty spaces and people that cannot afford satellite or whatever.
Itâs a misnomer, since there are no dials on telephones. Not only that, but dials didnât go up, they went around.
Iâm sure there are some people who still actually use AOL as an ISP. But Iâll bet there are even more people who donât even own a modem any more but pay the AOL bill because they think itâs necessary to keep their @aol.com e-mail address.
AOLâs 2014 annual report shows that they are shedding subscribers (âThe number of domestic AOL subscribers was 2.2 million, 2.5 million and 2.8 million at December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively.â) but theyâre also squeezing more cash out of them (âAverage 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.â). But these are all very long-term subscribers (âThe 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.â). Subscriber revenue is a shrinking portion of AOLâs revenues, but is still significant (it accounted for 24%, 28% and 32% of AOLâs total revenues in 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively).
Thank you for the prescriptive lecture, but Iâm a bit confusedâŚ
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 thatâs a measurable and meaningful part of AOLâs revenue stream.
Is it possible that you have conflated my distaste for AOLâs business model with contempt for everyone who uses dial-up?
I hope this doesnât mean the end of AIM.
(Donât laugh, itâs still better than giving your IMs to Facebook)
Weâre 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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