Why Dial-Up Internet Isn’t Dead Yet

Verizon’s announcement that it plans to purchase AOL revealed a interesting tidbit about what AOL is up to these days. Not only does the company continue to provide old-fashioned, dial-up Internet service to 2.3 million active subscribers, but that subscriber base has held surprisingly steady in recent years. The current numbers are only a notch lower than 2013, when AOL had 2.5 million dial-up subscribers, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings report. The numbers reflect a broader trend in broadband adoption -- or lack thereof. The vast majority of Americans abandoned their dial-up connections in droves sometime between 2000 and 2010. But their numbers plateaued in recent years.

Meanwhile, a slender minority of the population, roughly 3 percent, didn’t make the switch, according to Pew Research. Year after year, the same percentage of Americans stuck to dial-up. So even if broadband prices plummet and networks expand to every last redoubt of dial-up nation, AOL may still have a core of paying customers for years to come. If that sounds implausible, consider the longevity of the telegram, which remained a viable service in India until 2013, more than a century after phones supposedly rendered it obsolete.