Cue the dial-up modem sound that chaotic symphony of beeps and static because an original internet icon is logging off. AOL, the company that was once synonymous with getting online, has announced it’s finally pulling the plug on its dial-up internet service. After a “routine evaluation” of its products, the company has decided to put an end to the very thing that made it famous. The official goodbye is set for September 30th.
If your first thought was, “Dial-up still exists?”, you’re not alone. The service, a relic of the Y2K era, has been on life support for years. In its prime, back in 1999, AOL had over 18 million subscribers. By 2015, that number had dwindled to about two million. And by 2021, sources said the number was in the “low thousands.”
The reason dial-up has hung on for so long is surprisingly practical: some rural areas still don’t have access to affordable high speed internet. Fortunately for them, other companies will still offer the service, so they won’t be completely cut off from the web.
But as for AOL’s service, a moment of silence just doesn’t feel right. It’s probably more appropriate to have a moment of chaotic beeps, tones, and static to honour its memory. After all, it’s the sound of a bygone era, one where we had to wait for the internet to connect before we could even make a phone call.
