
AOL is finally shutting down dial-up
Thomas Ricker
created: Aug. 11, 2025, 7:32 a.m. | updated: Aug. 11, 2025, 2:49 p.m.
As a septuagenarian, my father’s story was typical of long-time AOL dial-up subscribers.
He was sure he didn’t need the dial-up component, but he didn’t want to risk losing access to his stock portfolio, investor forums, and email.
His setup worked, and he could afford to keep paying the subscription he had dutifully paid for over a decade.
Even after things were fully mirrored, he still felt trepidation when the time came to pick up the phone and terminate his dial-up account (despite AOL’s best attempt to obscure and complicate the procedure).
Months later he told me he felt silly for letting the ruse go on for so long.
6 days, 23 hours ago: The Verge