AOL has announced the discontinuation of its dial-up service, a nostalgic method of connecting to the internet that was popular in the 1990s and early 2000s. The company, once a major internet provider, revealed to CBC News that it will end dial-up subscriptions on September 30 to adapt to the current digital landscape.
Dial-up services, portrayed in movies like “You’ve Got Mail,” involved using a phone line to access the internet, requiring users to choose between their landline and internet connection. While broadband internet has become the norm in North America, some regions, especially in rural Canada, still rely on dial-up due to limited high-speed options.
Despite the decline in dial-up usage, a small percentage of Canadians and Americans continue to rely on it. The CRTC reported that only 0.1% of residential internet subscriptions in Canada were dial-up in 2023, compared to 0.5% a decade earlier. In the U.S., an estimated 163,000 households exclusively used dial-up in 2023.
As major telecom companies in Canada expand fiber-optic networks for faster and more reliable internet, satellite services like SpaceX’s Starlink are also being utilized in remote areas. However, challenges such as topography and vegetation can affect satellite internet reliability, leaving a niche for dial-up services in areas with limited connectivity.
Despite its niche use, experts do not foresee a revival of dial-up due to the widespread availability of faster internet options. The transition away from dial-up may be significant for a small group of users who have relied on it as their sole internet connection.