America Online to offer broadband connectivity in USA

America Online used to be one of the biggest providers of internet connectivity in the United States till a couple of years ago. However, the advance in technologies and entry of broadband players led to their user base declining. The company however now has plans to get back their competitive edge and get aggressive in their domestic market.

The company announced that they have just got into partnerships with three different broadband providers and they would soon be offering low-cost, high-speed service throughout the country. AOL has got into collaborations with BellSouth Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc., Time Warner Cable, and Verizon Communications Inc.

All these deals would enable the company to establish a national network of service providers that will also sell the AOL service. AOL currently has around 20.1 million U.S. subscribers. This figure is shocking low when compared to a user base of 27 million at its high point in 2002. AOL also recently started focusing on improving earnings from their online ventures to supplement the earnings from their ISP business.

AOL also recently got into a deal with search engine giant Google for online advertisement business expansion. That led the market analysts to believe that the online division of Time Warner has more or less given up on their aims in the ISP market. AOL has also announced plans to market these new services aggressively to lure back more and more users from their competitors.