WebProNews

The dial-up access service provided by AOL received a farewell from Time Warner, as the company announced plans to spin it into a separate company.

Struggles at Time Warner have the company ready to make some more moves aimed at separating a profitable online advertising business from its dwindling Internet access subscriber efforts.

The Time Warner Cable business is up for sale too.

The New York Times said Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes made it known the company wants to get its costs and operations under control. They will cut 100 jobs as part of that plan.

Despite the continued growth of broadband through cable and DSL connections, a customer base for dial-up access still exists. Though many have left dial-up for faster access options, those who remain have been profitable for AOL.

For many people, and probably some who don't want to admit it, AOL represented the first tentative foray into the online world. AOL kept people in its walled garden of content for years, before opening up access to Usenet in 1994 and the Web several years later.

AOL opened its content to the Internet a couple of years ago, opting to replace subscriber revenue with an audience-driven advertising stream. The company has made a few purchases to bolster its online ad platform, and its Advertising.com subsidiary is claimed to reach nearly 90 percent of the US Internet audience.