After more than three decades, AOL’s dial-up internet service is officially coming to an end. In a statement on its website, the Yahoo-owned company announced that the service will be discontinued on September 30, 2025.
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“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” the statement read. “This service will no longer be available in AOL plans.” The company is also ending support for the associated software, including the AOL Dialer and AOL Shield browser, which were optimized for older operating systems.
For many, the end of AOL dial-up may come as a surprise, but it marks the final chapter for a service that was once synonymous with the internet. As recently as 2019, a U.S. census estimated that 265,000 Americans were still using the service.
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The loyalty of these users, like the author’s father, was often tied to a sense of security. For years, he continued to pay for a dial-up subscription he didn’t need, afraid of losing access to his stock portfolio and email. Even after his digital life was successfully migrated to a modern broadband connection, the emotional ties to the service made it difficult for him to finally cancel his account.
This shift to a new era feels even more poignant as the end of AOL dial-up coincides with the arrival of Google Zero and the potential end of the ad-supported internet. It’s a reminder of how much the digital landscape has changed and how far we’ve come from the days of a slow, screeching connection.
