The Internet firm under Grupo Clarín devoted US$ 100,000 to upgrade servers, and closed a deal for software licenses -the amount of which has not been revealed- with Slipstream Data, Canada, to speed up file transmission for phone connections. According to the firm, browsing time speeds can be five folded.
The service –exclusive for residential clients- costs US$ 1.20 a months for Ciudad Internet accounts. Diego Barreiro, Chief of Products in Ciudad Internet, explained the solution would be available for users from other dial-up access providers, in some six weeks, even for free Internet access providers, though prices are yet to be defined. He added they wouldn¿t integrate the amount to the bill of a third party, but they will send an extra bill to clients with service values, covering a period longer than a month.
Barreiro pointed the solution “meets the needs of clients who cannot acccess broadband”. In the country, broadband accesses went from 295,000 in December, to 350,000 in the first six months 2004.
The Chief of Products in Ciudad Internet explained the tool is to maximize low-cost Internet use and generate longer connection times. In turn, Karina Degano, Marketing Manager of Ciudad Internet, expects that of the 140,000 dial-up clients of Prima, some 30,000 to 40,000 use the service by year-end.
Prima holds 27.1% of the local market of Internet, on the incumbents Telefonica and Telecom with 13% and 14% of the market each, respectively. Fourth comes Fibertel (cable-modem) with 11% of the market, followed by UOL (7%) and Alternativa Gratis (4%). Prima gathers dial-up pay services (Ciudad Internet), broadband (Flash), corporate services (Datamarkets) and free access services (Fullzero)
Ciudad Internet technology, based on the solution Slipstream, cuts the size of pages browsed with compression algorythm, reduces image graphic quality and compresses files sent and received via e-mail (POP3/SMTP). Besides, it allows users to set up the quality of images to speed up browsing. Users do not request additional hardware; they only have to download a program. The solution is already used by AOL Canada and Juno (USA).