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Service Providors (ISPs) competed with these online services by offering a low monthly fee
for unlimited access to the Internet as well as an email account. Rather than losing their
customers, the online service companies adapted. They began to permit their users roam not
only their own networks, but the entire Internet as well. The online services also reduced
their prices substituting monthly flat fees for the previous per-hour surcharges. To most
users, online services are now simply very large ISPs. Of all the online service companies, AOL is still determined to maintain its own private network, although still permitting users to browse the World Wide Web. Prodigy, MSN and CompuServe have all constructed huge Web sites to house all of their exclusive content. They still want you to pay a fee, but the fee covers access to the World Wide Web and to content you can't see anywhere else instead of as an entrance fee for their private networks. For more information on the World Wide Web, please also visit:
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