AOL Officially Ending Its Dial-up Service

Tech

Aug 13

So… be honest: how many of you even knew that AOL still had dial-up services going?

Back in the days of yore, the internet wasn’t something you could just tap a button for and connect to. There was no “clicking the Firefox icon and now you’re in.” You had to connect to it through a telephone line, and it caused a high-pitched screeching sound that wasn’t like anything else.

Given that it was from, you know, the 90s, and we have instant startup that you can connect to almost anywhere in the world, one would think that the last AOL dial-up session happened in 2001. Nope. It’s still going. Not for much longer, though. AOL has officially announced that, come September 30th of this year, it will be discontinuing its dial-up service. For someone alive in the 90s, that’s like hearing that the last Blockbuster has finally closed down.

Er… Blockbuster was a magical video rental store that we all had before streaming services.

Yes, I’m a child of the 90s. What of it?

These were the sounds of the 90s internet.