AOL shuts down dial-up internet service you probably didn’t know it was still offering

·InternetAOL shuts down dial-up internet service you bably didn’t know it was still offeringBy Wyatte Grantham-PhilipsBy The Associated PressBy Wyatte Grantham-PhilipsBy The Associated Press AOL was still offering dial-up.AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, FileAOL’s dial-up internet is finally taking its last bow

Yes, while perhaps a dinosaur by today’s digital standards, dial-up is still around

But AOL says it’s officially pulling the plug for its service on Sept. 30. “AOL routinely evaluates its ducts and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” AOL wrote in a brief on its support site — noting that dial-up and associated software “optimized for older operating systems” will soon be unavailable on AOL plans

The creaky door to the internet was characterized by a once-ubiquitous series of beeps and buzzes heard over the phone used to connect your computer online — along with frustrations of being kicked off the web if anyone else at needed the landline for another call, and an endless bombardment of CDs mailed out by AOL to advertise free trials

Eventually, broadband and wireless offerings emerged and rose to dominance, doing away with dial-up’s quirks for most people accessing the internet today

Still, a handful of consumers have continued to rely on internet services connected over telephone lines

In the U.S., according to Census Bureau data, an estimated 163,401 households were using dial-up alone to get online in 2023, representing just over 0.13% of all s with internet subscriptions nationwide

AOL was the largest dial-up internet vider for some time, but not the only one to emerge over the years

Some smaller internet viders continue to offer dial-up today

Regardless, the decline of dial-up has been a long time coming

And AOL shutting down its service arrives as other relics of the internet’s earlier days continue to disappear

But tumultuous years ed, and that valuation plummeted as the once- pioneer bounced between multiple owners

After a disastrous merger with Time Warner Inc., Verizon acquired AOL — which later sold AOL, along with Yahoo, to a private equity firm

At the time Verzion announced that sale to in 2021, an anonymous source familiar with the transaction told CNBC that the number of AOL dial-up users was “in the low thousands,” down from 2.1 million when Verzion first moved to acquire AOL in 2015 — and far below peak demand seen back in the 90s and early 2000s

But beyond dial-up, AOL continues to offer its free services, as well as subscriptions that advertise identity tection and other support

Explore this year's list.