AT&T Internet Explorer default deal gave Microsoft an early browser edge
AT&T’s 1996 WorldNet deal made Internet Explorer 3 the default browser, a reminder of how distribution shaped the browser wars.
By Dominic Okoye · Staff Writer
· 3 min read
AT&T made Internet Explorer 3 the default browser for its WorldNet internet service in 1996, giving Microsoft a valuable distribution win while Netscape Navigator still led the browser market. The AT&T Internet Explorer default arrangement did not disclose a headline price, but former AT&T WorldNet executive Tom Evslin told The Register three decades later that the decision was driven by cost.
The deal was part of AT&T’s attempt to compete with CompuServe and America Online shortly after Windows 95 reached the market. WorldNet needed browser software, Netscape had the stronger consumer brand, and Microsoft was trying to recover ground in a category it had entered late.
AT&T and Microsoft announced a promotion and distribution agreement on July 25, 1996, followed by another announcement in October. Under the arrangement, AT&T WorldNet software was placed on versions of Windows 95 distributed to PC makers, with Internet Explorer 3 selected as WorldNet’s default browser. Netscape Navigator was still offered as an alternative, according to the accounts of the deal, but it did not get the preselected position.
Why did AT&T make Internet Explorer the default?
Evslin, who was vice president for AT&T WorldNet Service at the time, told The Register that AT&T paid based on activated copies and that Microsoft, as he remembered it, effectively priced its browser very aggressively. He said he was not fully certain of the exact terms because of the time elapsed. The specific per-copy economics were not disclosed.
In 1996, Evslin described the arrangement as a way to put the full WorldNet signup flow and Microsoft’s browser on new PCs before customers opened the box. For Microsoft, the value was straightforward: being the default put Internet Explorer in front of users at the moment they were choosing how to access the web.
A default is the option a product selects for the user unless the user changes it. In consumer software, that position can shift adoption because many users accept the preloaded choice, especially when setup and signup are bundled together.
Microsoft later said in January 1997 that corporate use of Internet Explorer had more than tripled since August, while Netscape’s share had fallen. The company’s browser-bundling tactics later became part of antitrust fights in the United States and Europe, including the European Union’s browser choice screen introduced in 2010.
What the WorldNet deal signaled
WorldNet was pitched as direct internet access rather than another AOL-style closed online service. It grew quickly and, by one measure used at the time, became the world’s largest internet service provider. The service eventually shut down in 2010.
Internet Explorer had a longer industry impact. Microsoft’s browser led the market for more than a decade before its dominance weakened in the late 2000s. AT&T’s decision was one piece of that rise, rather than the whole story, but it arrived when new internet users were leaving walled-garden services and when Microsoft controlled the operating system on millions of PCs.
The episode remains a compact case study in software distribution. Product quality and brand recognition mattered, as Netscape’s position showed, but placement inside the PC setup flow gave Microsoft leverage that competitors could not easily match.
This story draws on original reporting from The Register.
