AOL, the company previously known formally as America Online, is discontinuing its Dial-up internet service after 34 years.
The service will shutter on September 30, meaning “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,” the web service provider said on its website.
“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 for Yahoo – which counts AOL among its brands – said in a statement to FOX Business.
“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,” the statement continued.
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According to Yahoo, very few customers were still using the dial-up service, as broadband connections have become the norm.
The company said AOL still maintains a strong customer base with traffic growing from year to year.
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AOL, known for its “You’ve got mail” greeting, buddy lists and instant messaging services, dominated U.S. households in the 1990s when it was the leading internet service provider. At the time, dial-up access was the norm, with users connecting to the internet from a home telephone line via a sometimes lengthy – and noisy – process.
Free trial discs were distributed to homes when the internet was gaining popularity. Users needed a home telephone line to utilize the service, and many still remember the high-pitched screeching it made while connecting.
In 2000, AOL merged with Time Warner Inc. in a massive transaction that shook the telecommunications world. It eventually became an independent company again in 2009 before Verizon acquired it in 2015.
Verizon sold both AOL and Yahoo – both going under the Yahoo brand – to private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2021.
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