You've Got Voicemail: AOL

America Online users got a new service March 26: online voice mail, for $5.95 a month, letting them listen to voice messages in their e-mail and listen to e-mail by phone. The monthly fee is added to the standard monthly AOL charge.

ZDNEt.com calls it part of an AOL strategy toward revenue diversification following a period of falling advertising and stalled subscription growth. That followed an early-week announcement that AOL planned an enhanced "Plus" version of its AOL 8.0 for high-speed Net users, including firewall, antivirus, and improved parental control software.

In December, AOL began a major financial and operational remake/remodel as news of falling ads and stalled subscriptions began to become known contrary to earlier projections.