AOL previews Netscape low-cost Internet service

America Online Inc. (AOL) is entering the low-priced ISP (Internet service provider) market with a service under the Netscape name that will be priced at about $10 per month.

Customers can get the Netscape unlimited Internet access service for just $1 per month until March 1, according to a registration page on the Web site of AOL, a division of New York-based Time Warner Inc. After that, the price will go up to $9.95 per month. The service includes nationwide access, personalized e-mail addresses for customers and a search service powered by Google Inc., according to the site.

AOL today offers unlimited dialup access for $19.95 per month or $199 per year under the CompuServe brand. It also sells a $23.90-per-month unlimited dialup service that comes with AOL 9.0 Optimized, a collection of enhancements such as e-mail, instant messaging and exclusive content. Those enhancements are also available for $14.95, along with five hours of dialup access, for customers that buy their own broadband connections. A package with a broadband connection, called the AOL for Broadband-Cable/DSL Plan, costs $54.95, according to AOL’s Web site.

The introduction of the Netscape service indicates that AOL recognizes the two basic kinds of Internet users: those who want high speed and those looking for the lowest price, said Marcel Nienhuis, an analyst at The Radicati Group Inc., a consulting company in Palo Alto, California.

“I think AOL is being slightly outmatched on their prices by MSN,” Nienhuis said. Microsoft Corp.’s unlimited MSN 8 Dial-Up Internet Service costs $9.95 per month for the first six months and $21.95 per month after that, according to the company’s Web site. There are also free ISPs that are supported by advertising, but many users don’t want to look at the ads, he added.

Consumers, especially first-time Internet users, also are looking for an easy-to-use portal to the Internet with personalized content, an area in which Netscape is well known, he added. AOL, on the other hand, has become better known for its communications tools, such as AOL Instant Messenger, Nienhuis said. The company probably didn’t want to blur the AOL brand by adding another service, and with good reason: AOL leads in ISP market share in North America, he said.

Netscape was the first widely commercialized Web browser, beginning in 1994. Netscape Communications Corp., which distributed it, was sold to AOL in 1998.