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End Is Near For The Landline-Based Service That Got America Online In The ’90s

Aug 12, 2025

https://archive.org/details/aol8installationdisc/Aol8.0_Disc.jpg — (Image: Internet archive)

If you’re using AOL dial-up internet to read this story, you might want to put down your can of Surge and turn off your episode of “ER.” We have some bad news.

The landline-based service, a mainstay of 1990s culture and many Americans’ first exposure to the online world, is coming to an end decades after being supplanted by broadband.

AOL, originally America Online, will discontinue its dial-up service Sept. 30, according to a terse 106-word announcement on its website.

At its peak in 2000, AOL dial-up had 25 million subscribers and occupied a dominant role in American culture. CDs offering free trial internet service were ubiquitous in mailboxes, and the service’s “You’ve got mail” chime and chatrooms were so famous they inspired a 1998 film about online romance starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.

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