New York (CNN) \u2014 AOL, an internet pioneer that brought millions of Americans online for the first time, is discontinuing its dial-up service next month.<\/p>\n
The company that brought the internet to the masses in the 1990s and early 2000s recently posted a notice<\/a> on its website saying that it \u201croutinely evaluates its products and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet\u201d on September 30, ending more than three decades of operations.<\/p>\n Even as broadband and wireless internet became the predominant way people access the internet, AOL never stopped offering its sluggish service that connects people to its service over a landline. However, about 160,000 people connect to the internet through their landline telephone service, data<\/a> from the 2023 US Census shows.<\/p>\n From \u201cYou\u2019ve Got Mail\u201d to \u201cSex and the City,\u201d AOL\u2019s internet was a mainstay in 1990s pop culture and engrained in Americans\u2019 lives, especially for the tones, beeps and screeches it regularly provided. And the company regularly flooded people\u2019s mailboxes with CDs offering free trials to access the internet.<\/p>\n But similar to dial-up internet, AOL is also a shell of itself. The brand\u2019s popular internet messaging service, AIM, was shut down in 2017 and AOL itself has gone through many parent companies.<\/p>\n