( The more things change, the more they stay the same... )

From: https://tinyurl.com/2ye56med (nypost.com)

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 AOL finally shutting down its dial-up service - a relic of the early Internet

   By Taylor Herzlich
   Published Aug. 11, 2025, 11:31 a.m. ET

   The AOL dial-up internet service of the World Wide Web's early days -
   known for its nostalgic beeps and chirps - is coming to an end.

   The company - owned by Marc Rowan-led asset management giant Apollo Global
   - will discontinue the seldom-used service Sept. 30.

   "AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to
   discontinue Dial-up Internet. This service will no longer be available in
   AOL plans," the web provider said Friday.

   There were around 163,000 US households that still used dial-up as their
   only way to connect to the internet in 2023 - accounting for just 1% of
   the nation's household internet subscriptions, according to data from the
   US Census Bureau.

   Many Americans started with AOL as they learned to use the Internet. The
   dial-up service connected to a conventional telephone line, which meant
   picking up the landline phone would cut off your web connection.

   AOL's recognizable dial-up tone and email alert was so famous that it
   became a key plot tool in the 1998 romantic comedy "You've Got Mail" with
   Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

   In 2000, AOL - then called America Online - was the world's largest
   internet company.

   But dial-up connections were replaced over the years with high-speed
   lines, which operate several thousand times faster.

   Telecom giant Verizon bought the service for $5.5 billion in 2015 and two
   years later bought Yahoo to create a new media group.

   In 2021, Verizon sold off both AOL and Verizon to Apollo for $5 billion.

   AOL will become the latest relics from the early days of the Internet to
   go dark.

   Microsoft scrapped pioneering internet calling service Skype in May, and
   legacy browser Internet Explorer in 2022.

   AOL's instant messaging service AIM was shut down in 2017.
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-- Sean

... Nobody notices when things go right.
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