A beacon of the early internet is about to be silenced.
AOL’s dial-up internet service is shutting down Tuesday, ending one of the web’s first mainstream access points.
Once a dominant technology player, AOL, initially called America Online, provided the gateway for millions of people to get their first taste of the web. Signing into the service — a process accompanied by a noisy, garbled series of computerized tones that sounded like a drowning robot — became a rite of passage.
Once online, they would be greeted by a chipper if vaguely mechanical voice exclaiming “Welcome! You’ve Got Mail!” The phrase grew so familiar that it became the title of a blockbuster romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
At its peak, AOL counted more than 20 million users and in 2000 became part of the largest corporate deal in history when it merged with Time Warner in a deal that gave the combined companies a value of approximately $350 billion. But as broadband internet became more accessible — and as a host of more sophisticated web browsers came on the scene — AOL began shedding users. In 2021, it was sold along with Yahoo — with which it had merged after both were acquired by Verizon — for $5 billion to the private equity giant Apollo.
The dial-up shutdown was first reported in August. A representative for AOL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a brief note posted to its help page, the company said the decision was made as part of a routine evaluation of its products and services.
AOL remains active today: CNBC reported in 2021 that 1.5 million monthly customers paid for AOL’s technical support and identity theft services, equating to as much as $180 million in annual revenue. AOL also continues to offer email services.
A fair number of internet users — especially in rural or remote areas where broadband Internet is not available or is too expensive — also still rely on dial-up: as many as 163,000, according to recent U.S. Census data. CNBC reported that only a few thousand AOL users were paying for dial-up access.
