AOL Will Shut Down Dial-Up Internet Access in September

After decades of connecting US subscribers to its online work and nan net done telephone lines, AOL recently announced it is yet shutting down its dial-up modem work connected September 30, 2025. The announcement marks nan extremity of a exertion that served arsenic nan superior gateway to nan web for millions of users passim nan 1990s and early 2000s.

AOL confirmed nan shutdown day successful a thief connection to customers: "AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet. This work will nary longer beryllium disposable successful AOL plans."

Along pinch nan dial-up service, AOL announced it will discontinue its AOL Dialer package and AOL Shield browser connected nan aforesaid date. The dialer package managed nan relationship process betwixt computers and AOL's network, while Shield was a web browser optimized for slower connections and older operating systems.

AOL's dial-up work launched arsenic "America Online" successful 1991 arsenic a closed commercialized online service, pinch dial-up roots extending backmost to Quantum Link for Commodore computers successful 1985. However, AOL didn't supply existent net entree yet: The expertise to browse nan web, entree newsgroups, aliases usage services for illustration gopher launched successful 1994. Before then, AOL users could only entree contented hosted connected AOL's ain servers.

When AOL yet opened its gates to nan net successful 1994, websites were measured successful kilobytes, images were mini and compressed, and video was fundamentally impossible. The AOL work grew alongside nan web itself, peaking astatine complete 25 cardinal subscribers successful nan early 2000s earlier broadband take accelerated its decline.

According to 2022 US Census data, approximately 175,000 American households still link to nan net done dial-up services. These users typically unrecorded successful agrarian areas wherever broadband infrastructure doesn't beryllium aliases remains prohibitively costly to install.

For these users, nan alternatives are limited. Satellite net now serves betwixt 2 cardinal and 3 million US subscribers divided betwixt various services, offering speeds acold exceeding dial-up but often pinch information caps and higher latency. Traditional broadband done DSL, cable, aliases fiber-optic connections serves nan immense mostly of US net users but requires infrastructure investments that don't ever make economical consciousness successful sparsely populated areas.

The persistence of dial-up highlights nan ongoing integer disagreement successful nan United States. While municipality users bask gigabit fibre connections, immoderate agrarian residents still trust connected nan aforesaid exertion that powered nan net of 1995. Even basal tasks for illustration loading a modern webpage—designed pinch nan presumption of broadband speeds—can return minutes complete a dial-up connection, aliases sometimes it doesn't activity astatine all.

The spread betwixt dial-up and modern net connections is staggering. A emblematic dial-up relationship delivered 0.056 megabits per second, while today's mean fibre relationship provides 500 Mbps—nearly 9,000 times faster. To put this successful perspective, downloading a azygous high-resolution photograph that loads instantly connected broadband would return respective minutes connected dial-up. A movie that streams successful existent clip connected Netflix would require days of downloading. But for millions of Americans who lived done nan dial-up era, these statistic show only portion of nan story.

The Sound of nan Early Internet

For those who came online earlier broadband, dial-up meant a circumstantial ritual: clicking nan dial button, proceeding your modem dial a section entree number, past listening to nan distinctive handshake sequence—a cacophony of static, beeps, and hissing that indicated your machine was negotiating a relationship pinch AOL's servers. Once connected, users paid by nan hr aliases done monthly plans that offered constricted hours of access.

The exertion worked by converting integer information into audio signals that traveled complete modular telephone lines, primitively designed successful nan 19th period for sound calls. This meant users couldn't person telephone calls while online, starring to countless family disputes complete net time. The fastest user modems topped retired astatine 56 kilobits per 2nd nether perfect conditions.