AOL to End Dial-Up Internet Service After More Than 30 Years

AOL, the company that helped bring the internet into millions of homes in the 1990s, is ending its dial-up internet service after more than three decades.

The company recently announced on its website that it will discontinue the service on September 30, explaining that it “routinely evaluates its products” and has decided it is time to move on from dial-up. The shutdown marks the end of a technology that once defined early internet access.

Even as broadband and wireless connections became the standard, AOL continued offering its slower landline-based internet service. According to the 2023 US Census, roughly 160,000 people in the United States still connect to the internet through landline dial-up.

In its heyday, AOL became a pop culture phenomenon, with its “You’ve Got Mail” greeting, distinctive connection sounds, and free trial CDs arriving in mailboxes nationwide. The service was also featured prominently in television shows and films, cementing its place in 1990s nostalgia.

AOL, originally known as America Online, has seen many changes in ownership over the years. Its popular instant messaging platform, AIM, shut down in 2017, and the company itself merged with Time Warner in a deal often cited as one of the worst in corporate history. Today, AOL is owned by a private equity firm that also controls Yahoo.

The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the end of its dial-up service.

Credit: CNN Newsource

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