A Fixture of the Early Internet Age Is Going Away

The first part of the news might surprise people: Dial-up AOL still exists. The second part might prompt a wave of nostalgia: It's finally going away for good.

• The company, which is now part of Yahoo, quietly announced the move on its website, reports NBC News. "AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet," it reads. "The move is effective on September 30.
• The matter-of-fact tone belies the huge role the dial-up feature—then under the company's previous iteration of America Online—played in the early age of the internet. "Back in the 1990s, AOL's dial-up tone—a series of beeps, bursts of static and earsplitting screeches—and 'You've got mail' email alert were the soundtrack for many Americans as they learned how to navigate the internet," per the New York Times.

• It even inspired the movie You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in 1998.
• By 2023, only about 160,000 US households still connected to the internet via dial-up, and CNBC reported in 2021 that AOL's slice of that was in the "low thousands."
• For some, it might have been necessity. For others, something else. Thomas Ricker at the Verge recalled a column he wrote a few years ago about finally getting his reluctant father to give up the AOL service after decades, even though he had broadband available. "His subscription was like a security blanket."