( The more things change, the more they stay the same... )
From:
https://tinyurl.com/2ye56med (nypost.com)
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AOL finally shutting down its dial-up service - a relic of the early Internet
By Taylor Herzlich
Published Aug. 11, 2025, 11:31 a.m. ET
The AOL dial-up internet service of the World Wide Web's early days -
known for its nostalgic beeps and chirps - is coming to an end.
The company - owned by Marc Rowan-led asset management giant Apollo Global
- will discontinue the seldom-used service Sept. 30.
"AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to
discontinue Dial-up Internet. This service will no longer be available in
AOL plans," the web provider said Friday.
There were around 163,000 US households that still used dial-up as their
only way to connect to the internet in 2023 - accounting for just 1% of
the nation's household internet subscriptions, according to data from the
US Census Bureau.
Many Americans started with AOL as they learned to use the Internet. The
dial-up service connected to a conventional telephone line, which meant
picking up the landline phone would cut off your web connection.
AOL's recognizable dial-up tone and email alert was so famous that it
became a key plot tool in the 1998 romantic comedy "You've Got Mail" with
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
In 2000, AOL - then called America Online - was the world's largest
internet company.
But dial-up connections were replaced over the years with high-speed
lines, which operate several thousand times faster.
Telecom giant Verizon bought the service for $5.5 billion in 2015 and two
years later bought Yahoo to create a new media group.
In 2021, Verizon sold off both AOL and Verizon to Apollo for $5 billion.
AOL will become the latest relics from the early days of the Internet to
go dark.
Microsoft scrapped pioneering internet calling service Skype in May, and
legacy browser Internet Explorer in 2022.
AOL's instant messaging service AIM was shut down in 2017.
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-- Sean
... Nobody notices when things go right.
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