AOL Dialup now as expensive as broadband (i.e. DSL or cable modem)

As this TechDirt article points out, AOL seems to think its users are silly enough to pay the same amount for their slow and unreliable dial-up connection as they could spend to get a nice high-speed (yet, sometimes unreliable) connection to the Internet.

The time has come, dear AOL users, to vote with your wallets. I know that at least one of you simply can't receive any sort of of broadband access at their home, but almost all of the rest of you can.

There are 2 ways to reduce your AOL costs, by the way. First, if you already have high-speed access, you should make sure that your AOL account is a "bring your own access" account. This is significantly cheaper than the normal dial-up account.

Second, and an even better idea, abandon AOL entirely. Get a broadband connection and start using the email program and web browser of your choice. If you aren't making use of some specific AOL service that cannot be duplicated elsewhere, do yourself a favor and break free. You have nothing to lose but your AOL email addresses.

AOL Tries To Prove That Its Dialup Customers Really Are Suckers

For years, AOL has struggled to transform itself out of a "dial-up" service provider. Every few months the company would announce some great new strategy to get people to sign up for AOL's broadband, rather than ditching AOL completely for some much cheaper broadband offering. This has involved story after story after story after story after story about how AOL was finally going to work with its sister broadband provider, Time Warner Cable/Roadrunner. Instead, not much happened. [Continued]

(Via Techdirt.)