Color me very surprised.
Look, we all have nightmares about AOL. Growing up, we used the numerous discs as frisbee weapons outside during the summer. Just the other day, I was forced to revisit my AOL past when I stumbled on my old AOL chat credentials.
Seems that dial-up is still very much around, and still very profitable … to the tune of more than $176 million in its last fourth quarter.
Yes, I am shocked. People–a lot of people–still pay for AOL services.
Truth is, high speed Internet is not as ubiquitous as we would like to think. Some rural areas lack the infrastructure, and AOL is relatively cheap. Still, if I had to answer “is AOL making millions from subscribers” as the final question of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, suffice to say I’d be very unhappy right now.
Are you surprised by this?
[M Guy via Flickr CC]
Joanna says
I’m not only surprised that AOL still exists but that it is possible to functionally access the modern internet on dial-up. So many pages are overloaded with video, audio, graphics and other bandwidth heavy features which need more speed than you can get on dial up
Eric Dye says
Seriously. I can’t imagine trying to use dial-up.
Tre Lawrence says
The word dial-up actually makes me twitch…