Overview

• The service and its accompanying AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser will be retired on September 30, 2025.
• Yahoo says only a handful of legacy users remain and other AOL offerings, including free email, will not be affected.
• U.S. Census data show roughly 160,000 households still rely solely on dial-up, though AOL’s own subscriber base may number only in the low thousands.
• With dial-up speeds capped at about 56 kilobits per second compared with modern broadband in megabits and gigabits, technical obsolescence underpins the shutdown.
• Advocates warn that small rural and low-income communities dependent on legacy connections will need alternative access solutions.