Time Warner Inc, the global media leader, on Wednesday will take the wraps off plans for ailing Internet unit AOL, which may include shedding subscriber access fees seen as blocking advertising revenue.
Since last year, Time Warner has openly pursued a strategy of developing free-access programs on AOL -- such as TV series, news and music -- to compete with Yahoo and Google Inc.
But as to AOL's fee-based access, Time Warner would only say last May that it was in talks with potential partners for AOL Europe.
And now, as speculation swirls in the press and the financial markets, Time Warner's management is keeping completely mum since its terse announcement Wednesday of a teleconference to present "AOL's business strategy update."
The teleconference will be held on Wednesday at 1500 GMT, after Time Warner publishes this year's second-quarter earnings.
A possible scenario, sector sources say, is that AOL would decide to permit local telephone operators in Britain, France and Germany to reap access fees, in addition to their current revenue for network connections and post-sale services. AOL would maintain its role as sites programmer.
But observers have noted that partners would mean AOL would have to share advertising revenue.
Meanwhile, the very future of fee-paid, low-speed Internet service is unclear. AOL has lopped off hundreds of call center jobs in recent months to try to offset its dwindling customer base.
According to the British newspaper Financial Times, AOL is considering a novel idea for its 18 million US subscribers -- of a total 24 million: they could keep their e-mail account even if they stop paying for it.
In that way AOL could retain a powerful audience for its Web pages, rather than close the accounts and drive its customers into rivals' portals.
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