Internet portal PC Home Online (
"Bundling Internet portal and access service has been proven feasible by foreign experience such as the US' AOL and Yahoo of Japan," said Jan Hung-tze (
Dial-up Internet access refers to connecting PCs or laptops to the Internet via slow traditional copper phone lines and modems.
PC Home Online was established in 1997 as an Internet portal providing cyber content, personal home pages, chat rooms and e-mail account services. The company has 6.8 million registered users.
Jan said the new venture is a good match for the company's strengths as Internet portals serve as a window between end-users and online content.
"With our new [Internet Service Provider or] ISP business, PC Home will be able to physically "connect" users to the cyber world with full one-stop service," Jan said.
One industry watcher, however, was skeptical. "There are 5.42 million dial-up users in Taiwan and by the end of the year that number will be around 6 million, translating into a 1 percent growth rate," said Jack Hsu (徐瑞宏), an analyst at Market Intelligence Center under the Institute for Information Industry (資策會).
But another executive from PC Home disagreed, saying the company has the competitive edge to attract customers. "PC Home has established a good relationship and brand loyalty with customers and we hope to gain 100,000 dial-up users by year's end," said Arthur Lee (
He said that dial-up service is PC Home's first step to providing Internet access and that the firm's next step will be high-speed connection or asymmetrical digital signal line (ADSL) service.
PC Home's ISP service had been stalled until international Internet access via Sparq (
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