AOL is discontinuing its\u00a0dial-up service, which helped millions of households connect to the web during the internet’s formative years and was instantly recognizable for its beep-laden, scratch-heavy ring tone in the 1990s and early 2000s.<\/p>\n
The company, which once dominated as the world’s largest internet provider, confirmed the move to CBC News on Sunday, saying it would discontinue dial-up as a subscription option on Sept. 30 “as we innovate to meet the needs of today’s digital landscape.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dial-up services were a mainstay of the early\u00a0internet\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as famously depicted in the 1998 romantic comedy\u00a0You’ve Got Mail\u00a0\u2014 and involved using a phone line to connect devices to the web. Those of a certain age will recall that this meant choosing between your landline and your internet access.<\/p>\n
The company, which offered the service to customers in Canada and the U.S., didn’t offer details about its existing dial-up clients. With much-speedier broadband internet access now the standard for web connection in North America, the end of dial-up service raises the question of who was still using it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There are many parts of rural Canada that still do not have reliable access or any access to high-speed internet connectivity. And for them, dial-up is their only alternative,” said technology analyst Carmi Levy in an interview with CBC News.<\/p>\n
“There are a number of regional or local players across the country that still provide low-cost dial-up access. The problem here is that the base, the internet\u00a0as we know it, is no longer built for dial-up access. And so it’s a technology that time really has passed by,” Levy said.<\/p>\n