This post was published 4 years 6 months 12 days ago and its content may not be valid anymore.

Users of AOL’s instant messaging service will automatically be offered AIM.com e-mail accounts ( screen-name@AIM.com ). AOL officials said they are not worried about accelerating the drop in paying subscribers to the America Online service since they are targeting the 20 million users of AIM who are not paying AOL members but who are loyal customers of the company’s instant messaging service. Instead of having those AIM users utilize one of the competing free e-mail services, AOL hopes that they will find it attractive to have one online identity, with their instant messages and e-mails sent and received from a single place.

America Online will not be giving away free e-mail addresses that carry the AOL.com name. Those will continue to be available only to paying subscribers, many of whom are willing to pay for those addresses, dial-up access and other exclusive AOL features.

Read More