AOL ends dial-up service after more than 30 years...

[posty 2,729]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0yy3e6z4zo

AOL is shutting down the dial-up service that introduced homes across the US to the internet.

The firm's dial-up offering connects to the internet via a phone line and currently only exists in the US and Canada.

Launched more than 30 years ago, AOL dial-up was known for its chirpy whirring start-up sound, but it has long since been replaced by faster alternatives.

Fewer than 300,000 people in the US reported having only a dial-up internet connection, compared with more than 300 million with broadband service, according to 2023 government estimates.

"AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet, " the company said in a notice to subscribers in the US and Canada on Friday.

The service will no longer be available in AOL plans as of 30 September, the firm added.

"Thanks for the memories RIP," wrote AOL co-founder Steve Case, who presided over the firm's growth in the 1990s.

The company was known for luring customers by mailing them free trial discs and at one point claimed ownership of nearly 40% of the time that Americans spent online.

AOL, which merged with Time Warner in 2000 in a deal widely deemed disastrous, boasted more than 30 million subscribers at the end of 2001.

But its lead had already started to be eroded, as broadband offerings from rivals started to gain traction. As early as 2003, obituaries for dial-up service had begun, as in a Wall Street Journal article that declared: "It's official. Dial-up is dying."

In the UK, AOL was toppled from the top spot as internet service provider in 1999. It then sold its UK arm in 2006.

Time Warner spun off AOL in 2009. It was acquired by Verizon in 2015, which saw value in its mobile technology business and later merged it with Yahoo.

Today, AOL and Yahoo are owned by Apollo Global.

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I would have thought this was done a while ago...

[frank 2,311]

 

[Mike Honcho 5,316]

The bored might finally be rid of seafoam1!  

[posty 2,729]

Just now, Mike Honcho said:

The bored might finally be rid of seafoam1!  

[HellToupee 1,852]

Remember the modem sounds?

[posty 2,729]

10 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

Remember the modem sounds?

 

[MikeMatt 150]

Sh1t - I think we may lose Sux. 

[listen2me 23 1,885]

28 minutes ago, frank said:

 

Back with our first computer we had compuserve.  I was too young to ask my mom wtf?

[squistion 2,251]

3 hours ago, posty said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0yy3e6z4zo

AOL is shutting down the dial-up service that introduced homes across the US to the internet.

I would have thought this was done a while ago...

I remember reading maybe like 10+ years ago, that there were remote areas in the US that most internet providers did not provide service to because it was not profitable for them to do so and as such dial-up service was the only option in those areas...but obviously that must have changed if AOL is pulling out of the market. 

[posty 2,729]

2 hours ago, squistion said:

I remember reading maybe like 10+ years ago, that there were remote areas in the US that most internet provides did not provide service to because it was not profitable for them to do so and as such dial-up service was the only option in those areas...but obviously that must have changed if AOL is pulling out of the market. 

Makes sense…

[Thornton Melon 629]

I never had the pleasure of dial-up internet. I only know those modem sounds from old commercials and videos. Broadband was available in my area when I first got internet in '99, and there was no way I was gonna use a house phone for that.

[cmh6476 1,040]

Fock

[BunnysBastatrds 2,477]

Constant buffering made me pull my nose hairs out.

[easilyscan 939]

I remember it all too well. Think I went to netzero after that. Free if you stayed under 40 hours per month, $9.95 if you went over.

 

[Sandy Loam 195]

6 hours ago, MikeMatt said:

Sh1t - I think we may lose Sux. 

You're on the call list, too ...

[supermike80 1,959]

7 hours ago, easilyscan said:

I remember it all too well. Think I went to netzero after that. Free if you stayed under 40 hours per month, $9.95 if you went over.

 

I tried all of them.  Netzero.  Then Kmart came out with a free internet service.  Sucked.  Alta Vista came out with one..also sucked.

[RLLD 4,265]

2 hours ago, supermike80 said:

I tried all of them.  Netzero.  Then Kmart came out with a free internet service.  Sucked.  Alta Vista came out with one..also sucked.

Netzero eventually figured out that people were using multiple accounts but calling from the same number, and they made sure folks could not do that.....of course, at the time we had maybe 3000 modems in our data center for people still dialing in, so all I had to do was switch numbers...

[supermike80 1,959]

I remember in the early prodigy days.   Had to create a user handle.   I worked for a company with the initials CT.  So I tried CT1, CT2, etc.   Until CT4 finally took.  Then I started getting messages from people in Connecticut asking what I was looking for.    Ahhh...the old days.

[edjr 6,628]

Never used AOL. Used Prodigy though. 

30 hours for 29.99 and then 2.95 for every hour after  

Used 30 hours in like 5 days.  

[posty 2,729]

Just now, edjr said:

Never used AOL. Used Prodigy though. 

30 hours for 29.99 and then 2.95 for every hour after  

Used 30 hours in like 5 days.  

Download to much ASCII porn?

[edjr 6,628]

2 minutes ago, posty said:

Download to much ASCII porn?

Prodigy chat.   Speeds were so slow, it was unpossible to watch pron. Took 1/2 a day to DL one pron picture

[WhiteWonder 2,789]

On 8/11/2025 at 4:37 PM, posty said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0yy3e6z4zo

AOL is shutting down the dial-up service that introduced homes across the US to the internet.

The firm's dial-up offering connects to the internet via a phone line and currently only exists in the US and Canada.

Launched more than 30 years ago, AOL dial-up was known for its chirpy whirring start-up sound, but it has long since been replaced by faster alternatives.

Fewer than 300,000 people in the US reported having only a dial-up internet connection, compared with more than 300 million with broadband service, according to 2023 government estimates.

"AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet, " the company said in a notice to subscribers in the US and Canada on Friday.

The service will no longer be available in AOL plans as of 30 September, the firm added.

"Thanks for the memories RIP," wrote AOL co-founder Steve Case, who presided over the firm's growth in the 1990s.

The company was known for luring customers by mailing them free trial discs and at one point claimed ownership of nearly 40% of the time that Americans spent online.

AOL, which merged with Time Warner in 2000 in a deal widely deemed disastrous, boasted more than 30 million subscribers at the end of 2001.

But its lead had already started to be eroded, as broadband offerings from rivals started to gain traction. As early as 2003, obituaries for dial-up service had begun, as in a Wall Street Journal article that declared: "It's official. Dial-up is dying."

In the UK, AOL was toppled from the top spot as internet service provider in 1999. It then sold its UK arm in 2006.

Time Warner spun off AOL in 2009. It was acquired by Verizon in 2015, which saw value in its mobile technology business and later merged it with Yahoo.

Today, AOL and Yahoo are owned by Apollo Global.

----

Will you still be able to post?