Trapped in a web

“CHURNING” is a constant headache for the companies that provide Internet access. Roughly one in seven customers abandon their ISP every month--a turnover five times higher even than that for mobile phones. Big consumer on-line services spend as much as $200 to acquire each additional user, and then make profits per subscriber of a mere $6 or so a month. Few consumers stay around long enough to repay the cost of getting them in the first place.