Like TV screen static, a VHS tape rewinding, or a butter churn, the grating sound of AOL dial-up Internet will also soon be a thing of the past.
As simply stated on its support website, “Dial-up Internet to be discontinued.” The service will end Sept. 30 2025, at which point, “this service and the associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued.”
That’s not good news for those folks still relying on dial-up, mainly in rural areas in the US and where broadband is not available. Data from the 2019 census revealed that 265,331 people relied solely on dial-up Internet.
The cacophony of beeps and whistles that accompanied dial-up Internet were an iconic sound from the dot-com boom of the 1990s.
Hopefully folks losing their dial-up will be able to access one of several alternatives: DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), cable, fiber optic (FTH), wireless internet (such as 5G) or satellite.
AOL ending its dial-up sparked a bunch of threads on Reddit, with many chatters surprised that dial-up still existed in this era of fast-speed Internet. On a thread, “AOL discontinues its dial-up internet, and we’re just surprised they even offered it in 2025,” many Redditers waxed nostalgic:
- “My parents switched to unlimited when I spent an entire night downloading the Batman and Robin trailer.”
- “My very first video download ever was Rob Zombie’s Never Gonna Stop. It took eight hours.”
- “Fascinating! The last time I used dial-up from AOL was in 1999 on the Greek island of Rhodos.”
- “My first modem had rubber couplers to put a physical phone handset into.”
- “Ah the memories of not being able to use phone because Limewire [was] running lol.”
