If you’re sufficiently old to recollect the signature pinging, boinging, and hissing sounds that got here with connecting to the Web within the early days, maintain onto these recollections — AOL simply introduced that its dial-up is about to hold up ceaselessly.
The corporate launched a press release on Friday, which learn: “AOL routinely evaluates its services and has determined to discontinue Dial-up Web.”
The service and all related software program will cease engaged on September 30, 2025, the corporate added.
Associated: Billionaire Investor Frank McCourt Jr. Needs to Rework the Complete Web. Here is How.
Wait, AOL dial-up service has been obtainable all this time? That is a legitimate query, and the reply is shockingly sure. The New York Instances, citing U.S. Census Bureau information, stories that in 2023, 163,000 United States households relied on dial-up service to entry the web. That represents simply over 1 p.c of all web subscribers within the nation.
The final time AOL launched dial-up consumer numbers was in 2015, when the corporate reported two million customers that represented $40 million a month in income. The corporate didn’t provide present consumer numbers with its closing announcement.
AOL’s dial-up service unlocked web entry for hundreds of thousands of customers within the Nineties, and its signature “You have Bought Mail” sign-on announcement was so iconic that it spurred a rom-com of the identical identify starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as a pair who fall in love over on the spot messaging.
Associated: ‘Thought It Had Been Deleted’: Elon Musk Says His Group at X Discovered the Vine Video Archive
Whereas the closure is certain to encourage a wave of nostalgic thinkpieces a few happier time of the web’s existence, Gen Xers ought to do not forget that the net may need appeared nicer than what we now have right now, but it surely was insanely slower. Dial-up web speeds common about 56 kilobytes a second, stories The Instances. Typical broadband connections are a number of thousand occasions sooner. Take into consideration that the subsequent time you are pissed off that an online web page took greater than half a second to load.
Finish of an Period…
Dial Up Web shall be discontinued by AOL on September 30, 2025 pic.twitter.com/MXn5t4MzJv
— ? Bodily Media Perpetually ? (@VHSDVDBLURAY4K) August 9, 2025
Be part of high CEOs, founders, and operators on the Stage Up convention to unlock methods for scaling your corporation, boosting income, and constructing sustainable success.
If you’re sufficiently old to recollect the signature pinging, boinging, and hissing sounds that got here with connecting to the Web within the early days, maintain onto these recollections — AOL simply introduced that its dial-up is about to hold up ceaselessly.
The corporate launched a press release on Friday, which learn: “AOL routinely evaluates its services and has determined to discontinue Dial-up Web.”
The service and all related software program will cease engaged on September 30, 2025, the corporate added.
The remainder of this text is locked.
Be part of Entrepreneur+ right now for entry.
