Broadband Blues: Millions of Users Still Rocking AOL Dial-Up
Remember that awful sound that would emanate from your dial-up modem every time you hopped onto the Internet? Most of us have since graduated to broadband bliss, at least those of us fortunate to live anywhere but the boonies. As it turns out, dial-up is still mildly popular, and whether that's by necessity or choice, AOL is still the go-to company for such service.
To wit, AOL has nearly 3.5 million subscribers who use the company's dial-up service, just like you did back in the 1990s. That's according to AOL's third quarter financial report, and represents a 15 percent drop from the same quarter one year prior. Those remaining dial-up subscribers added $17.49 million to AOL's bottom line in the third quarter.
That's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, and is far less than the number of dial-up subscribers AOL had at its peak in 2002 (26.7 million), but don't scoff, 3.5 million is still a bit of a big deal. As Dan Frommer over at SplatF points out, that's more than the number of people who pay for Spotify, and the decline in numbers is AOL's smallest Q3 drop yet. In other words, dial-up just refuses to die.
What type of Internet service are you using, and how fast is it?
To wit, AOL has nearly 3.5 million subscribers who use the company's dial-up service, just like you did back in the 1990s. That's according to AOL's third quarter financial report, and represents a 15 percent drop from the same quarter one year prior. Those remaining dial-up subscribers added $17.49 million to AOL's bottom line in the third quarter.
That's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, and is far less than the number of dial-up subscribers AOL had at its peak in 2002 (26.7 million), but don't scoff, 3.5 million is still a bit of a big deal. As Dan Frommer over at SplatF points out, that's more than the number of people who pay for Spotify, and the decline in numbers is AOL's smallest Q3 drop yet. In other words, dial-up just refuses to die.
What type of Internet service are you using, and how fast is it?
