AT&T;, Online Firms Reportedly in Talks
AT&T; Corp., which said last month that it would offer free Internet access to 90 million customers starting March 14, is said to be in talks with computer online service providers CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online about possible linkups.
“We’re definitely in some discussions,” a spokesman for CompuServe Inc., a unit of H&R; Block Inc., said Wednesday. “Where they are headed, it’s hard to say.”
The alliance would focus on allowing customers to link up with CompuServe using WorldNet, AT&T;’s newly announced Internet access service. The spokesman said it would tackle a problem faced by computer users who are unable to clear technical hurdles once they sign on to the Internet.
Separately, the Washington Post reported that AT&T; is in talks with America Online Inc. about a possible alliance, as well as with Prodigy Services Co., the online service jointly owned by International Business Machines Corp. and Sears, Roebuck & Co.
If negotiations are successful, analysts said, the deals could shake up the entire pricing and distribution structure of the still-evolving online computer services industry and further blur the lines between closed online services and the wide-open Internet.
What’s driving these talks, analysts said, is online services’ concern that cheap access and better navigational software to the free-wheeling Internet and its graphical subdivision, the World Wide Web, will cause customers to bypass closed online services.
Such managed services offer Internet access, but their key attraction is that they also provide organized content. Although the technology exists to allow access from the Internet to online services, users now are blocked from getting in. The only way they can enter the online services is by subscribing to them using specific software and paying a monthly fee with hourly rates.
But under the AT&T; discussions, which are still in preliminary stages, services such as America Online would have an icon on WorldNet’s “front door” interface that customers would see when they connect to the Web-based service with a computer and modem.
Using AT&T; as a jumping-off point, a user could then “leap” to America Online and pay a reduced rate for access, compared with members who use America Online’s own computer networks to reach the service.
AT&T; had no comment on the report. Prodigy and America Online executives were not immediately available.
America Online’s stock gained 37.5 cents to $46.50 on Nasdaq, and AT&T; shed 50 cents to $64.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.
When it announced its Internet service last month, AT&T; said it would offer two plans for non-AT&T; customers. One will be priced at $4.95 per month for the first three hours of access and $2.50 for each additional hour. A second plan would offer unlimited access for $24.95 per month.
