AOL, now a brand within Yahoo following its 2021 sale to Apollo Global Management, said it will shut its dial-up internet service on Sept. 30, 2025. The move will also retire the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, though free AOL email accounts and other subscription perks will continue. "AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet," the company stated on its support site. The decision ends a technology that helped introduce millions of Americans to the web. Launched in 1991, AOL’s dial-up business reached about 25 million subscribers at its 2000 peak but had fallen to the “low thousands” by 2021 as broadband, mobile and satellite connections became widespread. While the commercial impact is limited, the shutdown underscores the shrinking but persistent digital divide. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 163,401 households remained on dial-up lines in 2023, many in rural areas where high-speed internet remains scarce or costly. Those customers will now have to migrate to alternative providers or newer technologies. AOL’s withdrawal follows a series of restructurings: its 2001 merger with Time Warner, a 2015 sale to Verizon, and Verizon’s divestiture of AOL and Yahoo to Apollo Global. The latest step effectively closes one of the last large-scale consumer dial-up services in the United States.