The once-iconic sound of a modem handshake is fading further into history. AOL, long synonymous with dial-up internet, will discontinue its dial-up services at the end of September, closing a chapter that helped define the early online era. The shutdown will also retire related software such as AOL Dialer and AOL Shield.
For decades, AOL was a household name, bringing millions of users online in the pre-broadband era and even inspiring the 1998 romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail. But as broadband and wireless technologies took hold, dial-up quickly lost relevance. Today, faster alternatives like DSL, fiber, T-Mobile’s 5G home internet, and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service dominate the market, with government investment helping to expand broadband into rural areas.
Still, dial-up is not entirely gone. At least three providers — Microsoft, NetZero, and Juno — continue to offer the service in 2025. Microsoft’s MSN Dial-Up is priced at $21.95 per month, though access number availability may vary; some tested numbers in densely populated areas failed to connect. NetZero advertises “high-speed accelerated dial-up” for $29.95 per month, and recent checks confirmed multiple working access numbers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Juno remains unique for offering 10 free dial-up hours per month. However, its history is complicated — past reports and archived plans from 2009 suggested the company considered using customer CPU cycles for its operations, raising concerns about privacy and performance.
While the vast majority of Americans have moved on to broadband, the persistence of these niche services shows that, even in 2025, dial-up still has a sliver of a market — whether for rural users without reliable broadband or those holding onto internet nostalgia.
