America Online Inc., seeking to encourage its subscribers to sign up for high-speed connections, is raising the price of its main dial-up plan to equal that of its new broadband offerings.

That means most subscribers will pay $25.90 a month for either dial-up or broadband beginning March 9, although AOL is offering discounts to dial-up subscribers who commit to a year. AOL currently charges $23.90 a month for unlimited dial-up access.

"We're doing this because a majority of AOL members will be able to get high-speed connections and access the AOL service for this new price," spokeswoman Anne Bentley said Tuesday. "Hopefully it's an encouragement for them to get high-speed connections."

Although AOL has been shifting its focus to providing free articles, video and other materials on its ad-supported Web sites, the company sees paid broadband accounts as key to making that strategy work.

Personally I love it when a company this big rarely understands why a customer is even on dial-up in the first place. Most are in rural areas which broadband is either difficult if not impossible. The giant lacks understanding of a number of issues, and this is but another which will only cause people to make the right choice. What I personally fail to understand is why people on dial-up from AOL in the first place when others are already much cheaper.