London, UK virtual internet service provider LineOne Ltd launched an offensive yesterday against AOL Europe, in the light of its launch of subscription-free service Netscape Online (see separate story). LineOne boasted new subscriber figures of 400,000 and introduced an AOL Instant Messenger-style service called PING!
LineOne, a joint venture between British Telecommunications Plc and United News & Media, said its subscriber base has grown by 320,000 since March this year, largely due to cross-promotional deals with United newspapers and a 3.5m pound ($5.6m) marketing budget. This finally makes it a contender in the UK ISP market, and less than 200,000 subscribers behind subscription-based AOL UK and on a par with 400,000-sub Compuserve, AOL UK’s professional persons’ ISP.
LineOne also brought forward the date for the introduction of the PING! service that subscribers can use by accessing the LineOne web site from any PC. The firm made a point of observing that AOL’s IM can only be used on PCs with the necessary software installed. Yesterday AOL’s IM version 3 was launched, with features included news feeds, stock tracking and a system of using personalized icons to recognize buddies you are chatting to. The PING! service also allows pictures of users to be displayed while messaging.
