If you’re a Gen Xer, the phrase “You’ve got mail” probably hits like a time machine.
On September 30, 2025, AOL will officially shut down its dial-up internet service, marking the end of a tech era that’s been on life support for decades.
At its peak in the late ’90s, AOL had over 34 million subscribers, flooding mailboxes with free trial CDs and introducing millions of households to the internet’s clunky, crackling dial-up handshake.
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AOL outlived rivals like CompuServe and Prodigy by embracing, not resisting, the web, but even the last holdouts can’t compete with broadband, fiber, and satellite services like Starlink. While 163,000 Americans were still on dial-up as recently as 2020 (mostly in rural areas), AOL’s exit leaves just a handful of ISPs offering it.
It’s proof that “dead” tech often lingers far longer than you’d think, but even nostalgia can’t slow the broadband takeover.