ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701170064
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
New outages, glitches spur changes at AOL
NEW YORK - America Online had more technical problems Thursday, the day after its second major outage since summer forced it to shut off service to half its members.
The nation's largest on-line service has been struggling to accommodate a flood of users taking advantage of a new pricing policy that allows unlimited access. But spokeswoman Trisha Primrose said Wednesday's outage was not related to heavy usage. ``We made the decision at 3:45 p.m. to bring the system down to 50 percent capacity in order to fix the problem,'' she said. That cut off service to about 100,000 users. The problem was identified later as a malfunctioning device that directs data through the AOL network. Full service was restored at 8 p.m.
Thursday, AOL's chat rooms were down for about two hours after a routine upgrade. Company officials were unable to explain the precise nature of that problem.
Steve Case, chairman and chief executive, apologized to subscribers in a letter Thursday and said AOL is taking aggressive steps to address the problems. He gave no sign of any plans to suspend the flat fee. He said the company will increase spending, build its capacity and scale back efforts to attract new members until it can handle a larger volume of calls.
-Associated Press
Rev.Net expands to New River Valley
Rev.Net, a division of Kinetic Data Systems of Roanoke, said it has extended its local Internet access service into the New River Valley.
Rev.Net launched its service in the Roanoke Valley a year ago and now has 500 customers, said Doyle Edgerton, president.
Monthly fees for the service, which can be reached with a local phone call, range from $7.95 for 10 hours to $24.95 for 160 hours. Rev.Net also will offer high-speed ISDN service for $9.50 a month plus 2 cents per minute.
-Staff report
Jobless claims drop
WASHINGTON - The number of first-time claims for jobless benefits fell 32,000 last week to a three-month low.
The Labor Department said Thursday new applications for unemployment insurance totaled a seasonally adjusted 323,000, down from a revised 355,000 the previous week and the lowest since 319,000 in the week ended Oct.19.
The four-week moving average of claims dropped 6,750 to 348,750, lowest since 343,500 in the period ended Dec. 21. Many analysts prefer to track the less-volatile four-week average because it smooths out the spikes in the weekly reports.
-Associated Press
Briefly
* Winn-Dixie Stores has opened a supermarket at Westgate Plaza in Bedford. The 47,000-square-foot store features a sit-down deli/cafe, several specialty shops, a one-hour photo department, salad bar, melon bar and floral department. It replaces a smaller store in the same plaza. The store, open 24 hours a day, is one of 87 operated by the Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain's Raleigh, N.C., division.
* Three Southwest Virginia car dealerships are among 10 in the state that will begin selling Kia vehicles. Hart Motor Co. in Salem, Billy Craft Kia in Lynchburg and Danville Kia in Danville will offer both Kia models: the Sephia, a four-door sedan, and the Sportage, a sport-utility vehicle. Kia Motors Corp. of Seoul, South Korea, entered the U.S. market in early 1994 in the Pacific Northwest. With the Virginia openings, Kia will be represented at more than 200 dealerships in 24 states.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 linesby CNB