billso.com

This article first appeared on my old blog at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman?id=37

URL: AOL to slash 5,000 jobs

The death spiral for AOL’s dialup business hit a new low this week, as the company announced it would distribute its access software free of charge in the United States.

AOL will also offer some content and services for free, including e-mail. Some of these services will include advertising, following the model that Yahoo and Google have employed.

The company announced massive layoffs in its operations, primarily in call centers. These layoffs will help compensate for the lost subscriber revenue.

The dialup access business has been in decline for years in the U.S., as residential customers choose faster “always-on” connections like cable modems and DSL. In Hawaii, Time Warner Cable is the dominant provider.

Clearwire has entered the Honolulu market with a wireless broadband service that uses cellular phone signals to provide broadband. This service does not require a fixed-wire installation, and it may be attractive to users who change their residence frequently, such as students.

http://starbulletin.com/print/2005.php?fr=/2006/04/12/business/story01.html

Check our earlier discussions. These restaurants are using a call center in Santa Maria, California. The article has a brief discussion that details what the call center reps do on each call, and describes how the call center works with each restaurant to take the orders.

World: Yahoo! News - India, Pakistan Plan Nuclear Hot Line: Perhaps they will outsource the call center to Nebraska. “Thank you for calling the Indian Subcontinent Nuclear Hotline. My name is Mary Ann. May I have your customer number and nuclear passwords, please?” “India and Pakistan announced Sunday they would establish a new hot line to alert each other of potential nuclear accidents or threats, a step forward in efforts to normalize relations between the longtime South Asian rivals. ”