Dial-up Internet Still Alive and Thriving

I’ve thought for a while that dial-up internet was dead, with maybe just a couple of hundred subscribers here and there. So did most of our readers probably. But I was mistaken and corrected in that when I read the AOL financial report.

At the end of June 2014, AOL had 2.3 million subscribers to their dial-up service, each paying an average of $20.86 per month. Without any advertising costs or investment into a new network and services, it is almost pure profit. AOL made a staggering $155 million last year on this service alone. In comparison their ads service only made $144 million last year.

It is being speculated by experts in the industry that many of these subscribers aren’t aware that they’re still paying for this stone-age service. A lot might also think that the dial-up is required to have, for their new high-speed broadband to work.

The service has a surprising long life that probably can be attributed to the colossal marketing campaign run in the 90s. Millions and millions of free CDs were sent out to every household across the U.S., and many other countries.

A couple of years ago, former AOL product manager Reggie Fairchild revealed that their campaign took up the entire worlds CD production for several weeks during the launch of AOL 4.0 in 1998. “Think of that,” wrote Fairchild. “Not a single music CD or Microsoft CD was produced during those weeks”.

Just reading the words dial-up, the modem-sounds start to play in my head. A sound I’m not missing at all, but if you want to experience it again or are to young to remember, you can listen to a harmless version on YouTube.

Thank you Independent for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of America Online.