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Three phone companies will join Verizon and Time Warner Cable as providers of broadband connectivity; AOL and Sony brokered a portal deal focused on users of Sony Vaio PCs.

AOL announced agreements with AT&T, BellSouth, and Qwest Communications to provide branded broadband service to their customers, called AOL High Speed. AOL plans to price the new service at $25.90 per month in AT&T and Qwest territories, and $29.90 in BellSouth territory.

The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/28/technology/28aol.html?_r=1 class=bluelink>reported how AOL will encourage current users of its dialup service to make the switch. AOL plans to increase the monthly cost of dialup to $25.90 per month from $23.90.

AOL did not note the connection speed it will offer at the price levels available from its new telco partners. However, the pricing is consistent with 1-1.5Mb service offerings currently available from other providers.

The Sony-AOL partnership focuses on Sony VAIO computer owners. A portal focused on Sony owners contains the familiar AOL content. Above the fold on the right side of the screen of the AOL/Sony site, a block of content dedicated to Sony appears.

Sony users can find links to support, shopping, and a VAIO learning center from the AOL site. In February, Sony will begin shipping VAIO products with the co-branded AOL page as a default web browser setting along with other AOL applications pre-installed.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.