AOL's dial-up internet still exists, but not for much longer
The company announced that it would discontinue dial-up service on September 30.
Jackson Chen Contributing reporter
Updated Sun, August 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM EDT
1 min read
( RetroHead92 / YouTube)
It may have been decades since you last heard the
crunching screeches of connecting with dial-up Internet, but
AOL said it will discontinue its dial-up service on September 30, officially marking the end of an era in Internet history. As first spotted by
PC Gamer, AOL made the surprising announcement in a post buried in its AOL Help pages. Along with the dial-up service, AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser will also be discontinued by the end of September.
It may come as a shock to most that AOL still runs its dial-up Internet service, but some
thousands of users still rely on this outdated method as an affordable way to access the Internet in more rural areas. However, these user numbers in the "low thousands" are a far cry from AOL's heyday, which reportedly saw tens of millions of
subscribers, most likely thanks to the stacks of free trial CDs people would find in their mailboxes. Nowadays, dial-up Internet fails to compete against the likes of much faster broadband options, which include cable, fiber and satellite alternatives.
Even though AOL's dial-up service eventually lost relevancy, it stuck around for 34 years before meeting the same fate as other '90s tech icons like Blockbuster, Discmans and
AOL Instant Messenger. Now, the only time you'll really hear that iconic America Online serenade is through recreations on
social media.