Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) – AOL’s dial-up internet is finally taking its final bow.
Yes, perhaps today’s digital standard dinosaurs, but dial-ups still exist. However, AOL says it is officially pulling the plug for service on September 30th.
“AOL has routinely evaluated its products and services and has decided to discontinue dial-up Internet,” AOL wrote in a brief update to its support site. Please note that dial-up and “optimized for older operating systems” assancage software will not be available in AOL plans soon.
Previously American online, AOL first introduced many households to the World Wide Web decades ago when the dial-up service was launched, and became particularly well-known in the 90s and early 2000s. The squealing door to the internet was characterized by a series of once-resident beeps and buzzes that were once heard on the phone used to connect computers online.
Eventually, broadband and wireless products appeared and dominated, and abolished the dial-up habit for most people who have access to the internet today.
Still, a small number of consumers continue to rely on internet services associated with telephone lines. In the US, an estimated 163,401 households used dial-ups online in 2023, according to Census Bureau data.
AOL has been the largest dial-up internet provider for a while, but hasn’t been the only one to emerge over the years. Some small internet providers continue to offer dial-ups today. Anyway, the reduction in dial-up took a long time. And as other early relics of the Internet continue to disappear, AOL shuts down its services.
Microsoft, for example, retired from Skype video calling service earlier this year. For example, in 2022, Internet Explorer and in 2017, AOL cancelled Instant Messenger.
AOL itself is far from the dominant internet player decades ago. Beyond dial-up and IMS, the company has become known for its “having an email” catchphrase, which greets users who checked their inbox, as well as famously shown in the 1998 film starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan under the same name.
Before America went online, AOL was founded in 1985 as a quantum computer service. It quickly rebranded in 1991 and appeared on the open market. Close to the height of the dot-com boom, AOL’s market value reached nearly $164 billion in 2000. After a disastrous merger with Time Warner Inc., Verizon acquired AOL. This later sold AOL along with Yahoo to a private equity company.
Original issue: August 11, 2025, 4:04pm EDT
