Like TV screen static, a VHS tape rewinding, or a butter churn, the grating sound of AOL dial-up Internet will also soon be a thing of the past.
As the company simply states on its support website, “Dial-up Internet to be discontinued.” As of Sept. 30, the site notes, “this service and the associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued.”
That’s not good news for those folks still relying on dial-up, mainly in rural areas in the US and where broadband is not available. Data from the 2019 census revealed that 265,331 people relied solely on dial-up Internet.
“We are discontinuing the dial-up internet service component included in certain legacy AOL Advantage, CompuServe, and Netscape Connect Plans as we innovate to meet the needs of today’s digital landscape,” a spokesperson from AOL parent Yahoo! said in a statement. “This change does not impact the numerous other valued products and services that these subscribers are able to access and enjoy as part of their plans. There is also no impact to our users’ free AOL email accounts.”
For those AOL customers still using dial-up, Yahoo! can provide alternative connectivity solutions based on location.
The cacophony of beeps and whistles that accompanied dial-up Internet were an iconic sound from the dot-com boom of the 1990s.
Ideally, customers losing their dial-up service will be able to access one of several alternatives: DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), cable, fiber optic (FTH), wireless internet (such as 5G) or satellite.
Those were the days
AOL ending its dial-up service sparked a buzz on Reddit, with many chatters surprised that dial-up still existed in this era of fast-speed Internet, and others waxing nostalgic about the “good ol’ days” of 56 kbps speeds.
On one thread, poster LSTNYER recalled how “My parents switched to unlimited when I spent an entire night downloading the (1997) Batman & Robin trailer.”
Redditer allursnakes remembers that “it took eight hours” for him to download the Rob Zombie music video, “Never Gonna Stop.”
Another poster, ahorseofborscht, said it took “careful planning” to download a 60 MB PC game demo — “getting the download started late enough in the evening that we wouldn’t be expecting any calls to come in on the land line, and early enough that I could stay up and make sure it actually downloaded and the connection didn’t suddenly drop for no reason. It took hours, but it worked and I was so excited!”
