AOL, which over the years became more of a media company than a service provider, discontinues its dial-up internet service on September 30, 2025. The business closure marks the end of a service that was a part of internet history since the 1990s. The decision was part of an internal evaluation of the company’s products and services.

AOL was an early pioneer in providing internet access, especially during the 1990s and early 2000s, when the company had more than 23 million subscribers in the United States. The rise of faster internet options, including cable and DSL, led to a significant decline in dial-up internet usage. As of 2025, only about 175,000 U.S. households still relied on dial-up services of some type. The discontinuation of dial-up connections was not expected to affect other services included with AOL plans. Users are still able to access their email accounts and other services through other internet connections.

A statement on AOL’s website stated:

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. As a result, on September 30, 2025 this service and the associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued.

This change will not affect any other benefits in your AOL plan, which you can access any time on your AOL plan dashboard. To manage or cancel your account, visit MyAccount.

AOL was founded by William von Meister in 1983 as a venture called Control Video Corporation (CVC). The company’s sole product was an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console. Von Meister’s original idea of buying music on demand was rejected by Warner Bros. Records. The service consisted of subscribers purchasing a modem from the company for $49.95, along with a one-time $15 setup fee.

GameLine allowed subscribers to temporarily download games and keep track of high scores, at a cost of $1 per game. The telephone disconnected and the downloaded game would remain in GameLine’s Master Module, playable until the user turned off the console or downloaded another game.

In January of 1983, Steve Case was hired as a marketing consultant for Control Video. A few months later, Jim Kimsey became a manufacturing consultant for the company, which by that time was near bankruptcy. Kimsey was hired by his West Point friend Frank Caufield, an investor in the company. In early 1985, von Meister left the company.

On May 24, 1985, Quantum Computer Services, an online services company, was founded by Kimsey from the remnants of Control Video, with Kimsey as chief executive officer and Marc Seriff as chief technology officer. The technical team consisted of Seriff, Tom Ralston, Ray Heinrich, Steve Trus, Ken Huntsman, Janet Hunter, Dave Brown, Craig Dykstra, Doug Coward and Mike Ficco. In 1987, Case was promoted to executive vice-president. Kimsey soon began to groom Case to take over the company, which he did when Kimsey retired in 1991. In February of that year, AOL for DOS was launched using an interface designed by GeoWorks. The service was followed one year later by AOL for Windows. This coincided with growth in pay-based online services, like Prodigy, CompuServe, and GEnie.

On April 3, 2006, AOL announced that it would retire the full name America Online. The official name of the service became AOL, and the full name of the Time Warner subdivision became AOL LLC.

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