Regardless of AOL’s exit, dial-up web is not going away

AOL might have discontinued its dial-up web providers, however at the very least three others nonetheless exist as options — sure, even in 2025.

Three suppliers — Microsoft, Juno, and NetZero — say that they provide dial-up plans, with Juno persevering with to supply free dial-up for 10 hours a month, although with a possible main catch.

Over the weekend, the web found that AOL had quietly introduced that it could discontinue its dial-up web providers on the finish of September. The shutdown may even have an effect on related software program together with AOL Dialer and AOL Protect, the corporate mentioned.

Whereas AOL grew to become synonymous with dial-up web — and it’s “You’ve Acquired Mail” notification even grew to become the inspiration for a characteristic movie — clients moved on to DSL after which broadband connections to the open web. Deploying broadband to rural areas requires funding, nevertheless, and the rollout was more and more funded by governments, quite than non-public companies. Wi-fi connections like T-Cellular’s 5G broadband providers and StarLink‘s satellite tv for pc connections helped make the older dial-up providers more and more out of date.

However for now, there do nonetheless look like dial-up choices obtainable.

Among the many most well-known is MSN Dial-Up Web Entry, which Microsoft sells for $21.95 per thirty days or $179.95 per yr. Nevertheless, after I tried to entry an inventory of close by entry numbers to verify of service was obtainable, a number of numbers I attempted — all in comparatively populous areas — weren’t acknowledged.

That wasn’t the case for NetZero, which presents “high-speed accelerated dial-up” for $29.95 per thirty days. I used my Bay Space cellphone quantity and was capable of finding a number of native entry numbers. (In fact, the Bay Space can be a haven for broadband, too.)

Lastly, Juno nonetheless advertises a free broadband service, although the Wikipedia web page dedicated to it notes that the corporate had deliberate in 2009 to make use of its software program to reap CPU cycles from its clients, a plan which will or might not have come to fruition. The web page additionally notes points with the corporate’s software program and the way it dealt with trendy net codecs.

Clearly, most American web clients have moved on to broadband, whether or not mounted or wi-fi. However when you want dial-up, a number of suppliers stay — for now.