From: theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk   
      
   Scott Dorsey  wrote:   
   > AOL wasn't really an ISP, they were a proprietary messaging service which   
   > at some point got an Internet gateway.  The vast majority of AOL services   
   > were not reachable from the internet and could not reach the internet.   
   >   
   > AOL did own for a while an actual ISP, and I can't remember what it was   
   > called, but it did offer normal PPP service.   
   >   
   > But the normal AOL service was no more the internet than was Compuserve   
   > or Prodigy.   
      
   Someone with more US knowledge please correct me, but I think AOL dialup was   
   a service that ran over the top of your phone service, which you got from   
   your local phone company.  That meant you could dial in from anywhere with a   
   phone connection.   
      
   To move into broadband they couldn't have had a national service like they   
   did with dialup, they needed the phone company to install DSL modems or   
   fiber in your particular area.  That means it was (and remains) a very   
   piecemeal picture based on who offers service in your area.  AOL wouldn't   
   be bringing anything to the table for that beyond a brand name and access to   
   a small amount of non-internet content, and it wasn't worth doing that   
   piecemeal.   
      
   By contrast, in the UK the incumbent phone company offered national   
   wholesale access to DSL and AOL did become a DSL ISP using that for a while.   
      
   Theo   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)