Time Warner and AOL were separate companies until they merged a year or 2 ago. AOL runs the dialup (56k) service and the servers for the email and all that. Time Warner runs the internet connection service, Roadrunner, which does not use the AOL client (just IE) to connect to the internet.
Now, in MY case, my father subscribed to AOL about 5 years ago, and we used the dialup service for a long time. We never got broadband because Time Warner was a separate company and naturally it would have cost like an extra $40 a month for broadband internet. My dad won't give up AOL because he wants to keep his email addy and he's not super computer-saavy so hes used to using AOL and such, has all his news websites in his favorites folder and so on. So, we would have had to keep AOL ($20 a month) and then get Roadrunner broadband internet service for me, which would have amounted to about $60 a month. Wasn't going to happen. So I suffered under a 56k dialup connection through AOL for a number of years.
HOWEVER, when they merged, AOL-Time Warner began offering an AOL + Roadrunner connection for relatively cheap. I think its currently running at like $35 a month for AOL Broadband. It uses the Time Warner Roadrunner broadband service, but uses an AOL client that requires you to log in to AOL in order to unlock your broadband connection. Its kind of an annoyance but something I'm willing to deal with as my father is willing to pay the extra $15 a month or so for the broadband service. Otherwise I'd be stuck on dialup or paying for Roadrunner myself, a thing which I don't have the money to afford to do.
That clear things up? Good.
edit- damn you Rbstr, beat me to the punch
2004-11-21, 04:56 PM
I bet nobody notices this text.
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