AOL UK Achieves Goal Of 'Stopping the Clock' By Making Flat-rate Internet Access Pricing Available to All UK Consumers.Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2000 Membership of AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. service in the UK surpasses one-million milestone AOL FLAT RATE - the UK's only true, no-strings US-style flat-rate plan -drives record usage and uptake in existing member base AOL UK to extend growth with new free trial, distribution of AOL FLAT RATE CDs in 240 ASDA ASDA American Student Dental Association ASDA Australian Sports Drug Agency ASDA American Sleep Disorders Association ASDA American Stamp Dealers Association ASDA Australian Screen Directors' Association ASDA Accelerate-Stop Distance Available supermarkets, and launch of new "AOL Anywhere" mobile Internet Refers to gaining access to the Internet using a lightweight, handheld device. See Mobile IP, PDA, smartphone and mobile TV. services AOL UK today achieved its goal of 'Stopping the Clock' by making its ground-breaking AOL FLAT RATE unmetered Internet access See how to access the Internet. plan available to all UK consumers. The Company also announced that, buoyed by the plan's success, the membership of its flagship AOL service has surpassed the one-million milestone. AOL FLAT RATE - the first and to date the only unmetered Internet access plan founded on the new FRIACO FRIACO Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (UK) flat-rate wholesale tariff developed at the initiative of AOL UK - has driven record acceptance and usage among existing members since its initial launch on 19 September. Starting today, all consumers will be able to enjoy unmetered access to the UK's leading subscription Internet service at the AOL FLAT RATE monthly fee of just (pound)14.99, including all subscription and Internet telephone costs, together with unlimited freephone member support, with no hidden charges, unwieldy contracts or the need to change telephone provider. At this all-inclusive low price, the plan provides members with AOL's unmatched value, ease-of-use and convenience - including world-class content, global community, family-friendly parental controls This article is about computer options. For the television show, see Parental Control (TV series). Parental controls are options, typically included in digital television services, computer and video games, or computer software used to access the Internet, that and leading-edge infrastructure. UK consumers can obtain free AOL FLAT RATE software by calling 0800 376 5588 or on the Web at www.aol.co.uk. The Company announced additional steps to build on the AOL UK service's unmatched subscriber base of one million members, including: -- A unique trial of the AOL service for new members, which waives the first-month subscription fee and gives up to 50 hours of usage with absolutely no subscription or Internet telephone charges -- The distribution of CDs in 240 UK ASDA supermarkets, the first AOL FLAT RATE retail partner, beginning on 13 November, inaugurating the company's major new alliance with the Wal-Mart retail group. That agreement, first announced in August, will also see ASDA integrated as a preferred food and drink retailer within the Shopping, Interests and Lifestyle Channels on the AOL service in the UK, and promoted via special online marketing campaigns. -- The launch of new, truly easy-to-use AOL Mobile and SMS mobile services, which the Company announced separately today (in news release attached below) as part of its 'AOL Anywhere' strategy to enable consumers to access AOL interactive tools and content anywhere, anytime and any way they choose. "Today marks an historic turning point for the interactive medium in this country, as we at AOL UK are fulfilling our pledge to 'Stop the Clock' for UK consumers", said AOL UK Managing Director Karen Thomson. "AOL FLAT RATE is the fruit of our efforts to reform the outdated UK metered telcoms regime so that consumers everywhere can truly make the Internet a central part of their daily lives. This landmark event is all the more exciting as we pass a milestone of our own - one million subscribers for the AOL service in the UK." Continued Ms. Thomson, "This unique and transparent US-style unmetered Internet access plan has demonstrated its sustainability within our current member base with the fastest uptake of any new pricing plan in our history and record usage. Now, having further built out our network, we are ready to launch our next phase of growth as we make AOL FLAT RATE available to every household in the country. And we will further build on our momentum by offering our completely free, 50-hour trial, promoting the plan in 240 ASDA stores and creating a valuable additional member benefit with our new AOL Anywhere services." Service already experiencing record member usage under AOL FLAT RATE AOL UK, which initially launched AOL FLAT RATE to existing members on September 19th, is expanding to new members thanks to an aggressive buildout The construction and implementation of a system. For example, "network buildout" implies constructing the network and going online. of FRIACO capacity by the Company's multiple network providers. Since the rollout to existing members began, usage - the greatest indicator of customer loyalty and e-commerce potential - has risen to approximately one hour a day per member, similar to that in the US. Throughout this rise in usage, members who have switched to the AOL FLAT RATE plan have continued to enjoy an online experience of unrivalled quality. The FRIACO tariff, created by economists commissioned by AOL UK in 1999 and mandated by the UK telecommunications regulator Oftel in May 2000, allows Internet Service Providers Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. to develop technically robust and economically sustainable flat-rate access networks. A full explanation of FRIACO is given in the Notes for Editors, below. AOL UK is the first - and to date the only - ISP (1) See in-system programmable. (2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. to offer a flat-rate plan based on FRIACO. Notes for Editors and CSEs About AOL UK AOL UK is the UK's leading interactive services company and a division of AOL Europe, the leading Internet, online and e-commerce services company serving consumers in ten countries and five languages across Europe. Through its successful multiple-brand strategy, AOL Europe operates the leading AOL and CompuServe subscription services, the AOL and CompuServe portals and the AOL Instant Messenger See AIM. , CompuServe Office and Netscape Online registered user services. As part of its AOL Anywhere strategy, AOL Europe has announced a number of alliances with technology manufacturers and mobile network operators, to extend its world-class content, community and hallmark ease of use to the mobile platform. From the first service launch in 1995, AOL Europe's multiple brands serve 5.4 million households across Europe, including more than 3.9 million households served by the company's AOL and CompuServe subscription services plus an additional 1.5 million registered users of the company's registered user services, Netscape Online and CompuServe Office. FRIACO - Flat-Rate Internet Access Call Origination Call Origination, also known as voice origination, refers to the collecting of the calls initiated by a calling party on a telephone exchange of PSTN, and handing off the calls to a VoIP endpoint or to another exchange or telephone company for completion to a called party. Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO) is a wholesale flat-rate pricing methodology that represents a critical breakthrough in the development of the Internet economy The Internet Economy refers to conducting business through markets whose infrastructure is based on the Internet and World-Wide Web. An Internet economy differs from a traditional economy in a number of ways, including: communication, market segmentation, distribution costs, and price. by enabling US-style flat-rate consumer Internet access. It offers Internet Service Providers (ISPs) the only truly sustainable and economically viable nationwide and telecoms provider-independent unmetered pricing environment for consumer narrowband Internet access. Prior to the introduction of FRIACO, ISPs wishing to offer flat-rate pricing were faced with three options. The first option attempted by a number of ISPs, Alta Vista See AltaVista. (World-Wide Web) Alta Vista - A World-Wide Web site provided by Digital which features a very fast Web and Usenet search engine. As of April 1996 its word index is 33GB in size. foremost amongst them, was to purchase capacity from network providers on a metered (ie charged by the minute) basis, while charging users an unmetered (ie fixed) fee for providing that access. The gulf between fixed income (the users unmetered fee) but unlimited costs (the amount paid to the network provider for every minute that user was online) exposed ISPs to substantial and uncapped financial risk, and led to the cancellation, curtailment Curtailment The act of contracting or reducing operations of a company in the hope of bringing it financial or operational stability. This management technique is often used when a company has grown too fast and is unable to effectively manage its operations. or withdrawal of almost all of those ISPs offerings. The second option was to use British Telecoms The telephone and communications carrier that provides services in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It used to be a division of the British Post Office, but was privatized in 1984 under Margaret Thatcher's administration. proprietary unmetered tariff, BT Surftime. The vast majority of UK ISPs (AOL UK included) have rejected BT Surftime for a number of reasons, including the fact that the tariff does not cover the full cost of the users unmetered connection to the ISP (therefore exposing the ISP to additional costs), and the fact that BT obliges consumers to commit to an unwieldy minimum three-month contract on a single nominated nom·i·nate tr.v. nom·i·nat·ed, nom·i·nat·ing, nom·i·nates 1. To propose by name as a candidate, especially for election. 2. To designate or appoint to an office, responsibility, or honor. telephone line, at a time when consumers are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. increased flexibility and mobility in Internet access. The third option is only open to cable providers, reaching customers whose homes are wired up to the cable providers own network. The mass-market scope of this solution is severely limited by the low reach of cable in the UK. For the last 18 months, AOL UK has fighting for an alternative to these three limited options, by instigating and leading a campaign for the right of UK consumers to experience the same kind of unmetered Internet access enjoyed by tens of millions of consumers in the US. The AOL UK 'Stop the Clock' campaign began to bear fruit in May when the UK regulator Oftel forced BT to begin offering a wholesale flat-rate tariff to its telecoms competitors. That tariff, known as Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO), was devised by economists commissioned by AOL UK in the Spring of 1999. The regulator mandated that BT the UK's former state monopoly telecommunications provider should offer this flat-rate tariff after reviewing a formal complaint from the telecommunications operator MCI (1) (Media Control Interface) A high-level programming interface from Microsoft and IBM for controlling multimedia devices. It provides commands and functions to open, play and close the device. (2) (Microwave Communications Inc. Worldcom last December. FRIACO makes a consumer flat-rate possible by requiring BT to offer wholesale, bulk Internet telephone access on an unmetered basis to other telecoms providers (known as Other Licensed Operators or OLOs), such as MCI Worldcom, Colt COLT. An animal of the horse species, whether male or female, not more than four years old. Russ. & Ry. 416. and Energis and many others. OLOs can buy bulk capacity on an unmetered basis that is, one rate for each connection for the entire year, rather than a minute-by-minute rate. The OLOs are then able to resell re·sell tr.v. re·sold , re·sell·ing, re·sells 1. To sell again. 2. To sell (a product or service) to the public or to an end user, especially as an authorized dealer. this capacity to ISPs, who are in turn then able to offer their users a true flat-rate based on fixed costs fixed costs, n.pl the costs that do not change to meet fluctuations in enrollment or in use of services (e.g., salaries, rent, business license fees, and depreciation). at source and freed from the uncapped financial risk associated with metered-based offerings. AOL UK launches new, truly easy-to-use mobile Internet services to extend 'AOL Anywhere' strategy New AOL Mobile services allow members on the move to access key AOL and services or receive text messages sent from PC Critical element in strategy to launch next wave of Internet growth in the UK In a major extension of its 'AOL Anywhere' strategy, AOL UK today announced the launch of its new AOL Mobile service, allowing AOL members to access key AOL content and services via any Internet-enabled mobile telephone. The Company also unveiled a truly easy-to-use service allowing members to send SMS (1) (Storage Management System) Software used to routinely back up and archive files. See HSM. (2) (Systems Management Server) Systems management software from Microsoft that runs on Windows NT Server. text messages to any mobile telephone world-wide from their PC. In addition to the AOL Anywhere initiative to allow consumers to access the power of the Internet beyond the PC, the new services advance the Company's overall growth strategy announced today by providing a significant new member benefit at no additional charge. (Users may have to pay connection charges levied by their telecommunications providers to access AOL Mobile.) AOL UK announced separately the launch of its AOL FLAT RATE unmetered access plan to all UK consumers for PC use, as the AOL service in the UK reached the one million member milestone. "In developing our new mobile Internet services, AOL UK focused as always on two overriding goals: giving our members the features they want and making them uniquely easy to use," said AOL UK Managing Director Karen Thomson. "Mobile services are an important part of our efforts to bring the next one million members online by building a medium that is at the centre of consumers' daily lives - anywhere, anytime and any way they choose." AOL Mobile will give members of the AOL service in the UK one-click access to email, news, sport, weather, entertainment and stock market information, as well as the ability to book cinema tickets, flights, holidays and restaurants. Mindful mind·ful adj. Attentive; heedful: always mindful of family responsibilities. See Synonyms at careful. mind of early consumer disappointment with the usability and usefulness of WAP (1) (Wireless Access Point) See access point. (2) (Wireless Application Protocol) A standard for providing cellular phones, pagers and other handheld devices with secure access to e-mail and text-based Web pages. devices, AOL UK has applied its hallmark convenience and ease-of-use to ensure that AOL Mobile offers members the services they need most when on the move, presented in a bespoke be·spoke v. Past tense and a past participle of bespeak. adj. 1. Custom-made. Said especially of clothes. 2. Making or selling custom-made clothes: a bespoke tailor. format for the mobile device and offering unprecedented simplicity of access and navigation. Members can configure See configuration. (software) configure - A program by Richard Stallman to discover properties of the current platform and to set up make to compile and install gcc. Cygnus configure was a similar system developed by K. these new services from their computer desktop via AOL Keyword: AOL Mobile. The service can be fully personalised Adj. 1. personalised - made for or directed or adjusted to a particular individual; "personalized luggage"; "personalized advice" individualised, individualized, personalized and localised localised - localisation , allowing members, for example, to check film listings at their local cinema or book a table at a local restaurant. Straightforward navigation of email allows members to read, write, delete, reply to and forward all email using a dedicated address book and configured con·fig·ure tr.v. con·fig·ured, con·fig·ur·ing, con·fig·ures To design, arrange, set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or uses: either from the handset or from the member's computer desktop. The AOL Mobile service can be accessed via any UK mobile phone operator using any WAP-enabled mobile phone. The SMS text-messaging capability is accessible via a one-click AOL Keyword shortcut (1) In Windows, a shortcut is an icon that points to a program or data file. Shortcuts can be placed on the desktop or stored in other folders, and double clicking a shortcut is the same as double clicking the original file. . The PC to SMS message SMS message SMS n → (message m) SMS m service is a convenient and powerful communications tool enabling members to contact any mobile phone user simply and quickly, and at no additional cost. About AOL UK AOL UK is the UK's leading interactive services company and a division of AOL Europe, the leading Internet, online and e-commerce services company serving consumers in ten countries and five languages across Europe. Through its successful multiple-brand strategy, AOL Europe operates the leading AOL and CompuServe subscription services, the AOL and CompuServe portals and the AOL Instant Messenger, CompuServe Office and Netscape Online registered user services. As part of its AOL Anywhere strategy, AOL Europe has announced a number of alliances with technology manufacturers and mobile network operators, to extend its world-class content, community and hallmark ease of use to the mobile platform. From the first service launch in 1995, AOL Europe's multiple brands serve 5.4 million households across Europe, including more than 3.9 million households served by the company's AOL and CompuServe subscription services plus an additional 1.5 million registered users of the company's registered user services, Netscape Online and CompuServe Office. |
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