The change reflects the change in how people access and use online services - the industry AOL played a major role in creating.

For those of you who don't remember, online services began back in the 1980s when the few people who had computers and modems had to pay $35 an hour (or more depending on the services they needed) to access information and games electronically. Back in the 80s, there was no

World Wide Web. There were no images like we see today online. You couldn't point and click on anything to get around. You had to use text menus and commands to navigate.

And "getting around" was slow. When I started using online bulletin boards and dialup commercial services in 1995, getting around meant creeping along using a 300 baud modem. Because of the cost of using online services (telephone costs were higher, then, too, and telephone message unit rates were separate from the online access fee) and the relative complexity of setting up modems and accessing online services, about the only people who used the services were people with fairly high disposable incomes and some technical ability.

My company, Attard Communications, won a contract in 1988 with the General Electric Company to run a forum (called RoundTables) on their GEnie service. GEnie attempted to make their service more affordable in evening hours by launching "all you could eat" access to the message boards online in 1990. As happened several years later when AOL launched a flat rate service, the demand outweighed the service's capacity, and the system came crashing down.

But eventually it was AOL's flat-rate access - and some aggressive marketing techniques (remember all those disks in the mail?)that helped popularize online services and the Internet. Separately, the development of the World Wide Web and web browsers also made it vastly easier for most people to "surf" the "net" using links and point and click navigation. But AOL was a driving force in popularizing the use of online services and the Internet to get information, participate in online communities and to make purchases online.

But now, AOL subscribers will be able to access AOL for free if they use broadband, and if they ask to have their accounts switched to the free access plan.

Now, instead of deriving significant income from subscriptions, AOL will need to bring in significant advertising dollars to make up for subscription dollars lost and to build sales. And they'll still need to market aggressively to not only keep existing subscribers but to get new users. The size of the user base, and what those subscribers look at (content and advertising), and how often they use the service will ultimately determine how much AOL brings in from advertising revenues.

Will they survive? Will they bring new users online? Take customers away from Yahoo and MSN and Gmail?

I sure hope they survive. AOL, whether you love them or hate them, was a major force bringing the general public and families online, and played a major role in shaping expectations of what could be done with the Internet.

I have to admit I'm partial to AOL for another reason, too. AOL was is also part of the history of the Business Know-How small business website. Business Know-How provided small business content to America Online for 11 years. (1990-2001). Our Career content also was developed as a result of our relationship with AOL, too.

But aside from sentimental reasons, and despite what a lot of my more technical friends think about AOL, I do hope AOL survives. There are still many million of people who find AOL the easiest and safest way to get online and let their family go online.

And, there's one other reason, too. In fact, it's the reason why I probably won't change my own AOL subscription to the free subscription - at least not for a while. I still use AOL to log onto the Internet occasionally when I travel and wind up in a hotel where too many people are trying to use the Internet connection at one time. If my Treo battery is low or I can't get a wireless signal for other reasons(I have a device and service that lets me hook my Laptop to my Treo and use it like a modem) then dialing into my AOL account is sometimes the fastest way to reach the Internet.