An AOL bill

Just a few months into its low-cost Internet access experiment, AOL Germany_s bid to make a major splash appears to have been a bellyflop. That immediate perception may be deceiving, however. In late August, when AOL Germany announced its price-cutting scheme to great fanfare at a Berlin trade show, the company clearly intended to make immediate and dramatic inroads on the German market-leader T-online. We are willing to be aggressive," Andreas Schmidt, AOL Europe_s CEO, said at the time. "I think we can take over the leadership in Germany." Two months after AOL_s monthly flat rate of DM9.90 went into effect, on 1October, the number of people using its service has only gone from 900,000 to one million, based on the numbers AOL is willing to release. "It_s hard for us," said one AOL Germany employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The T-Online commercials are just too good," T-Online claimed a reach in Germany of 67.9 percent, compared to 29.1 percent for AOL, in numbers compiled for the month of October by the research outfit MMXI Europe, an off-shoot of Media Metrix. But executives at AOL Germany remain confident their business plan will work out beautifully. And they may understand the evolution of the Internet better than their critics: Making money is not just about getting people to use your service - it_s about getting them to give you money. "[The price of a phone call] basically isn_t an issue any more," said Uwe Heddendorp, managing director of AOL Germany. "For the first time [in Germany] we have an AOL bill that includes both the flat rate and the local phone calls. The flat rate is very low and the local phone call is up to 51 percent lower than the normal local phone rate.