• silicon.com
• Technology
• Networks

By Felicity Ussher, 19 March 1999 00:10

NEWS AOL is to extend its fixed-rate pricing for Web access to the whole of Europe. Until now, only AOL subscribers in the UK and France could dial up to the Internet at a fixed price. But AOL Europe's President and CEO, Andreas Schmidt, announced at the CeBit trade show yesterday that he will push the strategy out to the rest of Europe, which traditionally is a pay-per-minute market. An AOL spokeswoman said the decision consolidates recent events in Europe, in particular AOL's recent injunction against Deutsche Telekom's per-minute pricing scheme, which fails to distinguish between Internet access and local calls. "We are now putting more energy into our campaign to get European telco operators to adopt flat-rate prices for local calls," she said. Robin Duke-Woolley, senior consultant at Schema, said: "AOL is beginning to rely much more heavily on advertising than subscriptions for its revenues. It's been found in the UK that taking away access charges dramatically increases the subscriber base. So it makes sense for them to offer this." Andreas Schmidt also announced two European portal sites, which he hopes will cement the AOL and CompuServe brands and boost AOL's advertising revenues. While AOLCenter will target consumers, CompuServe Center will be aimed at vertical industries. Both will run on Netscape platforms and will offer email and local content.