Unbelievable: 3.5 Million People Still Pay For AOL Dial-up

[de5_Roy]

people should take notice to any sneaky practices aol's been doing and get them fixed asap. i assume that's the main reason aol still has dial up subscribers.

the AOLosaurus needs a cyberoid to get off the dial up ice age.

may be apple could sue them for dial up patent infringement (the ability to dial the analog phone by swiping your finger around the dial).

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]crewton[/nom]Must be lucky. I live in the middle of no where nebraska pop. 3000 and get 20Mbps down 1Mpbs up. My parents only get 1.5Mbps dsl and I feel bad for them People in the country around me only get dial though. Not even a cell phone tower for 3G coverage.[/citation]
Wow. Well, some people shun technology...want it to be like it was 50 years ago. ...is that it?

 

[halcyon]

...and TBH, I didn't know dial-up was still legal. Is it legal?

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

You know what this means? Grandpa likes porn.

LOL, awesome way to start an article. This Ross A. Lincoln is pretty funny.

So, see how many people here say that they can't get decent internet? Maybe NOW the haters who say that "everyone today has good internet" will shut up and understand that online DRM is bad?

Quite funny.. I remember the dialup days; I don't see how ANY modern website can be loaded on dial-up. Even my ADSL sometimes has troubles.

And really... how did you guys manage to drag Apple into THAT discussion?!

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]. how did you guys manage to drag Apple into THAT discussion?![/citation]

Bro, look. Apple is the root of all modern evil. War...poverty...global warming...dial-up internet. Its all because of Apple.

Okay...LOL, I still love Apple products anyways. Gonna go down to my local Apple Store today and show some love...but I'll be think about you all.

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]ashane[/nom]In 2002, I was the UKs largest AOL dial up user with over 900 hrs logged! Those were the days man!ashanehttp/miniblogcreator.blogspot.com/[/citation]

...and then you got help and you're all better now. Congrats man, I'm glad to see you come through it.

 

[blubbey]

'We are not kidding. AOL still has real, actual dial-up customers.'

Great wording

 

[del35]

'We are not kidding. AOL still has real, actual dial-up customers.'

It is almost as bad as the iPhone being 3G jn 2011 and the iPhone 4s only having 512 k of ram. Yes welcome to the parade of morons.

 

[wooodoggies]

you guys are so dumb. i bet every single one of those AOL customers are over 60

 

[kogashuko]

DSL does use the same lines as dial-up but there is a distance between the dslam and homes that were the issue for a long time. That issue is fixed in most places but Verizon still refuses to hook up DSL. In one area I was looking to move the house was litterally sitting right on top of the dslam but Verizon only offered expensive T1. However, the verizon employee who lives further down the street hooked himself up without a problem. Needless to say I did not move there and I will not be paying verizon.
Now the county I am living in is trying to get legislation in place requiring the cable and phone companies to provide high speed internet.

 

[dhvd79a]

[citation][nom]mortsmi7[/nom]Actually its not suprising considering that rural broadband access grows at a very slow rate due to lack of customer density.[/citation]

^this. considering 24 million don't have broadband availability it seems reasonable. now if they are paying more than $10 i would question why.
http/www.broadbandbeyondborders.com/documents/broadband_Availability_2010.pdf

 

[Guest]

Dial up?, damn i feel bad for those people,

 

[wild9]

Perhaps the reduction in subscribers is down to customer service. In Europe many people seem to be pissed off with speaking to call centers in Asia, or being cut off, or being offered 'package deals' instead of solutions. At least so I am told, you don't need AOL's custom software these days to get on the net. I remember the free CDs they used to give out that would bog my friend's computer down so he could get on the net, it was really annoying especially when it screwed up. Some of the AOL staff must have had nightmares figuring all that out, since the problems were many and varied; it took them over 9 versions just to get it anywhere near smooth..

All that aside, I could live with dial-up for emails only. I really feel sorry for the people web browsing though; I cannot imagine how they cope with today's media, along with all the plug-ins and data-heavy visuals. Even on broadband some pages are not exactly speedy.

 

[legacy7955]

Wow....AOL. I remember when my Dad called them to cancel, we finally were able to get DSL 768kbps for 10$ a mo/ from Bell South, it took weeks to confirm the cancellation. A repeated phone calls. Finally my Dad calmly stated if you do not cancel my account I will sue you, this is no threat it is a promise. Immediately they put a supervisor on the phone and the account was cancelled in a couple of minutes, we also got a few extra dollars refund for our trouble.

 

[Guest]

I pity the fools. I finally convinced my technophobe uncle to switch to broadband and he was shocked at the speed. Now, they have FIOS and I only have cable.

 

[Guest]

I'm not seeing this "3.5 million people on AOL dial-up" number anywhere in the earnings report, and that very same earnings report says flat-out that AOL made 36% of its revenue last quarter from access subscriptions, despite the author's claim that "it still makes most of its profits from selling Internet access."

Am I reading something wrong or is this article just making up numbers to support the punch line?

 

[shqtth]

[citation][nom]shqtth[/nom]Not sure why AOL does not sell rebranded adsl/cable. don't they feel sorry for their customers running dial up? Customers are not just paying for the service, but the experience. Not sure why AOL wants to associate themselves with slow internet.[/citation]

Nothing wrong with what i said. A lot of providers resell adsl/cable/dialup etc. Its just funny that AOL makes majority of their money from dialup people. ANd no company wants to associate themselves with 'slow' so its ironic.

 

[shqtth]

Most of the people who are 30+ probably used AOL for their dialup and trial (just for the trial). THere was also netzero and juno for free internet ;P
Back in the day when I was a teen I had no money for Internet, and AOL saved my ass until the ADSL became available in my area then I canceled (my area needed an stinger to extend service to our areas sac box, helps my dad works for the telephone company)

Haha I remember in the day of virtual pc, i use to run netzero or juno in a virtual pc running 98 and then create a shared network (either threw virtual serial port/ppp connection or threw shared nat), that way I was surfing the internet on my pc connected to a virtual pc on my pc that os dialing out to the internet using netzero or juno, so I could surf not having to see the banners/ads Desperate times called for desperate measures.


Anyways I wonder if AOL recycled all those free floppy disks/cds yet?

 

[aaron88_7]

High speed internet is just a gimmick. Eventually it will pass, just like this cell phone phase.

 

[damian86]

ISP's should suggest customers to switch to broadband or just do it,IMO, dial up is now outdated.