What's Happened in 2001
The 2000 year was plagued by the crash of many dot.com web sites to few. Internet services which were "free" lost money. Anticipated advertising revenue for banner ads, listing fees, and membership sales was not forthcoming. It seemed to be a contest among various high profile web sites as to who could lose money the fastest. Reality struck. "Free Pc" sites disappeared, web sites' attempts at being everything to everybody failed. Real revenue had to generated to maintain operations.The first group to discover this was major search engines; now one has to pay to get listed, or to bid on "key words" to assure their site's visibility in each search engine. Unfortunately, they still haven't learned the complete lesson, search engines have set high fees for service, losing many smaller customers and the price advantage Internet listing had enjoyed. I expect by the middle of the 2001 year search engines will adjust their price downwards or lose their relevance.
The major merger of the year was approved in mid December between Time Warner and American On Line. Others were not as lucky; Microsoft lost its monopoly power and has been requested to break its corporate empire into two independent parts, operating systems and software applications. However Microsoft was quick to attack the AOL and Time Warner merger as AOL would not permit Microsoft's "Instant Message" customers to access AOL "Instant Message". Time Warner was just as quick to yell "foul" at ATT&T for not allowing Time Warner open access to ATT&T cable customers. Truly, the year 2000, has been an Alice in Wonderland World.
Closer to home: In July Kootenay Network Systems of Castlegar, Trail and Nelson sold out to "Look Communications" promising better customer service, cheaper prices and nationwide access. By September Look subscribers began experiencing problems with busy lines, with password Internet access, and by November Look mail servers had sporadic network outages between 9:00 AM and 10:AM. The price was right, for those who switched from KNS to Look had three free months unlimited Internet access, then three months unlimited at $9.95. However, you get what you pay for and by December Look was unable to rise further operating capital. On December 14 Look was short of money, and on December 27 received a last minute reprieve from their bankers for 208 million credit line; but only until January 31 / 2001. So, by my math I get three months free, three months at a discount, and then Look runs out of money and/or credit. You get what you pay for!
One final note: Shaw Cable has once again promised high speed Internet service to our area, but no date as to when it will begin, only that they are working on it.