AOL Canada
America Online customers in the U.S. have an "unlimited use" option that allows them to use AOL's service (including Internet access and members'only services) for any number of hours at as flat rate of US$26.95. Canadians, however, pay C$29.95 for a maximum of 50 hours and don't have access to an unlimited service plan. AOL Canada says a $13.95 "Bring your own ISP service" plan is offered to Canadians, but has no plans to extend the unlimited access plan of its U.S. counterpart to its customers north of the border. The company cites heavy competition as the primary reason for not offering a flat-fee plan; we suspect that the Canadian equivalency of US$26.95 may not look good to the average Canadian consumer, either.
Although AOL has often been criticized by experienced "Netizens" for its unusually high percentage of seemingly vacuous consumers, there is some evidence that Canadians are less inclined to fall for the "free trial" marketing pitch that AOL has employed to great success in the U.S. We're hopeful that this helps to explain why AOL use in Canada is lower (per capita) than it is in the U.S. (Perhaps the "A word" might have something to do with it, too.) At any rate, the company's newly revised shopping-mall-style website suggests that shopping online is a major thrust -- and one that is surely the real motivation behind the company's recently announced plans to aquire Netscape.
Incidentally, we asked AOL Canada just how many disks the company has given away over the years. "Literally millions" was the answer.
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