- AOL will discontinue dial up service in September. Less than 1% of the U.S. population still relies on dial-up internet services. AOL, however, has continued to offer it for more than 30 years.
AOL, which was the gateway to the Internet for a generation in the 1980s and 1990s, is closing the door that welcomed so many people online.
The company has announced that it will discontinue its dial-up service next month, meaning if you want to hear Elwood Edwards’ dulcet tones alerting that “you’ve got mail,” you’re going to have to connect via broadband.
“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” the company wrote in a notice to users. “This service will no longer be available in AOL plans.”
AOL has been offering dial-up service for over 30 years. While the screeching sounds of a modem are a distant memory for most users, data from the 2023 Census shows that over 160,000 people still relied on dial-up connections to go online.
Admittedly, that’s not many. Then again, AOL isn’t the dominant service it once was. Twenty-five years ago, AOL was a big enough company to buy Time-Warner in a $182 billion deal. That merger would go down as one of the most calamitous in history, resulting in a culture clash that led to continual infighting. When the dot com bubble burst, the combined company saw its value drop by $99 billion. Today, AOL is owned by a private-equity firm, which also owns Yahoo (another historical Internet property that has seen its influence wane).
From a practical standpoint, it’s hard to argue the decision. Dial-up internet speeds average about 56 kilobytes a second. The average broadband speed in the U.S. (300 Mbps) works out to nearly 700 times that speed. Gigabit speed lines are more than 2,200 times as fast.
Still, with the 2017 loss of AOL Instant Messenger and Edwards’ death last November, it’s yet another nostalgic blow for the early settlers of the online world.