At the end of October, the ISP will cease to provide customers with their own FTP web space to generate their own websites. The company is urging customers to backup their content immediately and seek an alternative hosting service.

AOL UK says the increasing popularity of other web hosting services on the market has already led many of its customers to go elsewhere. As a result, the demand for the Hometown service has significantly decreased.

The company issued this statement: "It's never an easy decision to shut down a feature, especially one like AOL Hometown and FTP that some members have used for a long time. But we have to look carefully at all of AOL's features to make sure we are offering as much value to our members as possible. With many good web hosting services now available on the Web, Hometown and FTP aren't as widely used as they once were. So we've decided to focus more on popular free features like email, AIM, AOL Radio and AOL Desktop."

Some customers have turned to the AOL message board to vocalize their frustrations over AOL's sudden one-month's notice in regards to discontinuing the service.

One of the most common complaints from customers is that they have been accustomed to AOL's easy management system, which might cause problems when migrating to a new ISP or dedicated hosting provider.

The sudden notice of the service's shutdown may also prevent some customers from finding a permanent redirect to a new hosting provider which could potentially result in the loss of many visitors.

AOL has apologized for ending the service, which will not only impact customers at its UK division but as well as around the world.

The ISP has reassured customers that only the Hometown service will be affected, leaving the rest of its services safe.