AOL will pull the plug and end its dialup internet service after more than 30 years.
The internet service provider said it will discontinue dialup — along with its memorable, high-pitched connecting noise and “You’ve got mail” greeting — and “associated software” on Sept. 30.
“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue dialup internet,” the company said in a statement. “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 dialup internet connections, will be discontinued.”
Free AOL email accounts or other services will not be affected.
Roughly 163,000 households (about 0.1% of the nation’s household internet subscriptions) had dialup as of 2023— the most recent year for which data are available — according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2019 census revealed that 265,331 people solely went online through dialup.
The company said it would provide connectivity options based on location for customers still using the service.
America Online launched its dialup service in 1991. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, America Online had more than 25 million subscribers in the U.S. The service was synonymous with the internet and became a mainstay in pop culture in movies like “You’ve Got Mail” and TV shows like “Sex and the City.”
Dialup technology was developed by Usenet in the late 1970s and connects to the internet through landline phone service. The relic of the early internet age has been mostly replaced by high-speed broadband, which can be thousands of times faster than the top dialup speed of 56 kilobits a second in ideal conditions.
America Online, the internet pioneer of the early 1990s known for its free trial discs, changed its name to AOL in 2006. It shut down the popular instant messaging service AIM in 2017.
AOL was part of a high-profile merger with Time Warner, which sold the company off in 2009.
Verizon bought the company in 2015. The telecom company sold the AOL and Yahoo businesses to private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2021.
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