Thirty-four years after its launch, AOL will shut down its dial-up internet service. The move marks another milestone in the fading of one of the internet’s earliest household names.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, AOL dial-up brought millions of households online. The service used a standard telephone line and a modem to connect users, often greeting them with the now-famous, “You’ve got mail!”
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Today, most people connect through broadband, Wi-Fi or mobile networks. Yet, AOL dial-up has remained available — at least until this fall.
Shutdown coming Sept. 30
The update on AOL’s website reads, “AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet. This service will no longer be available in AOL plans. As a result, on Sept. 30, 2025, 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.”
AOL also informed customers that the discontinuation of dial-up will not affect benefits in current AOL plans.
Fewer users each year
Dial-up is still used in some rural and remote areas where broadband infrastructure is limited. However, the number of users has steadily declined.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 265,000 people still used dial-up in 2019. By 2023, that number had dropped to 163,000.
AOL was first introduced to the public in 1992. Three years later, the service reached 1 million members and continued to gain popularity toward the end of the 1990s. However, a merger with Time Warner in 2000 prompted layoffs and investigations in the following years — contributing to the fall of AOL.
Verizon bought the company in 2015 in a $4.4 billion acquisition. AOL ended AIM chats in 2017, and its free trial discs have long since disappeared. Now, the dial-up shutdown is the latest step away from the early days of getting online.
For most Americans, the news won’t affect their daily internet use. But for those who remember the screech of a modem and the anticipation of a page loading, Sept. 30 will mark the end of an era.
