AOL, an undisputed giant of the American Internet, discreetly announced the end of its access service by MoDem RTC. “” AOL regularly assesses its products and services and decided to interrupt the Internet by modem », Can we read on the company’s help page. From September 30, the slow connection to characteristic beeps and sizzles will only be a memory.
The end of a familiar sound
For many, the surprise is not so much in the service stop as in the fact that it still existed. In 2023, around 163,000 American households exclusively used dial-up, just over 1 % of the country’s internet subscriptions. In the 1990s, these 56K modems – culminating at 56 kiloofets per second – were however the gateway to the network for millions of households.
AOL, founded in 1985, had then popularized the general public access to the Internet, until counting more than 23 million subscribers at the turn of the 2000s. Its “You’ve Got Mail” reception sentence and its CDs slipped in magazines that offered free connection hours were part of the daily.
At her peak, America Online had reached such a power in 1999, she bought Time Warner for $ 165 billion (!), In what remains one of the most disastrous mergers in the history of the media. But from the mid -2000s, high speed by cable or ADSL relegates the modem to the rank of technological curiosity.
The dial-up will however have marked several generations. He evokes the first steps on rudimentary web pages, the AIM discussion salons, the forums, and an era when to win the phone cut the connection. For some, it was also a game of patience. It was indeed necessary to take your time and take care of the time that the PC ended a download.
Nostalgia has also resurfaced at the announcement of AOL. On social networks, former subscribers have shared memories, supporting videos, the noise of the connection or the assumed slowness of the time.
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AOL says it will discontinue dial-up internet on September 30
May this sound echo in eternity:pic.twitter.com/I0zKIPERbX
— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) August 9, 2025
AOL RTC access joined the list of digital icons Réduits: Internet Explorer in 2022, Skype last May, or the AIM instant messaging service, extinct in 2017. In 2015 again, AOL’s dial-up had more than two million subscribers, which brought in more than $ 40 million per month. Today, the company, now owned by Yahoo, no longer gives figures, but the basis of residual users has largely reduced.
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