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The supply of AOL free trial CD’s at your local grocery store may have dried up long ago, though believe it or not, the service itself is still going relatively strong. According to the company’s most recent earnings release, AOL still has over 3.5 million subscribers to its dialup internet service, and the decline seems to be slowing. Q3 represented the company’s smallest decline yet, even though the company lost just over 630,000 subscribers over the past 12 months.
Want another amazing statistic? According to AOL the average paid tenure of its subscribers is up to a whopping 10.6 years. This would suggest that the company’s remaining subscribers are either fiercely loyal, or many simply haven’t checked their credit card statements recently. Either way it’s a strong reminder that our governments need to work harder to provide proper broadband to all at reasonable prices.
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suzybel
November 10, 2011 at 9:28am
I was on AOL dial-up for 10 years, I finally got satellite (my only choice) and I would not go back! And yes, Canada does qualify as Siberia. When I cancelled my account, they wanted to keep me as a customer for a price, so I could use their email. I can still use it for free and I don't have their bloated software on my computer.
Athlonite
November 09, 2011 at 8:27am
HA LOL Aholes on line we even got their filthy CD's here in NZ they made good coasters and bird scarer's for the strawberries in the garden but that's about all they were good for
Brdn666
November 07, 2011 at 1:07pm
My dad still uses AOL for his business. Since all he does with it is send emails/e-faxes, it's not that big of a deal. It's either get AOL for pretty cheap or pay over $100 for "high-speed", which is about 750k around here.
biggiebob12345
November 07, 2011 at 12:35am
My parents are still on dial up. In their mind they don't need high speed internet because "everything can be done at dial up speeds". Yeah and you can get everywhere you need to go by walking...you'll just waste half your life getting places.
tony2tonez
November 06, 2011 at 6:20pm
i do remember joining AOL chat rooms and making fun of everyone that they actually sent my dad a letter saying why our internet was be terminated for a period of time. He was pist. This was like '98 - '99. I will always remember that day when he called me into the kitchen to explain the chat that i posted. HAHAHA. those are my memories of AOL.
tony2tonez
November 06, 2011 at 6:13pm
and to think i was going to take my AOL Online CD to one of those 'Road Auctions' because i figured by now it was Antique.
HAHAHAH!
Jeffredo
November 06, 2011 at 5:41pm
I have a clueless coworker who won't give up her AOL. She lives in a city of 150,000 people no less, so access to DSL isn't an issue. She's just very resistant to trying anything new and is afraid AOL webmail somehow won't work the same (and she'll lose old emails). This woman is in her late 50s, so she's not even that old. AOL has her duped and programed very well. My older sister was much like her for many years. It took me ages to finally convince her she could still use her email account at AOL webmail's site.
hiawg
November 06, 2011 at 4:46pm
First and foremost, you might be surprised to learn that people still subscribe to AOL, the once popular ISP that fell from relevance about the time broadband came into its own. But get this -- according to The New Yorker, some 80 percent of AOL profits still come from its subscription business. It gets even better.
The New Yorker describes these subscribers as "older people who have cable or DSL service but don't realize that they need not pay an additional $25 a month to get online and check their email."
We're not talking about a small fraction of users, either. BusinessInsider said it spoke with a former AOL exec who said that AOL's "dirty little secret" is "that 75 percent of the people subscribe to AOL's dial-up service don't need it." When you consider that AOL raked in $244 million from 4 million customers in the third quarter of 2010, you can see where this could be troubling.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/are_aol_subscribers_dense
anc51699
November 06, 2011 at 2:46pm
I'm not suprised by this. I live in western Massachusetts and there are still a lot of areas that, besides Satellite, have no high-speed internet access available, mainly because of either low populations (250-2000 people in some towns) or old town by-laws that prevent it. It all comes down to how much it costs to give those towns access, and companies like Verizon and Time Warner don't find it fisable to install it in places like these. Most of the people who live in these areas are mainly people in their 50's and older, who don't do a heck of a lot on a PC in the first place.
Keith E. Whisman
November 06, 2011 at 3:01pm
My dad is 77 years old and all he complains about is not having access to the internet to view porn. Poor man.
Keith E. Whisman
November 06, 2011 at 2:02pm
So Justin your saying that there are at a minimum, 3.5 million losers?
nesrinamb
November 06, 2011 at 1:48pm
That explains a lot, every now and then I get someone who emails me with a aol address. I am amazed how many people still use the company.
Dartht33bagger
November 06, 2011 at 12:13pm
I didn't even know that AOL still existed for internet access. I never even knew anyone that had it. I just remember getting the discs in the mail every once in a while when I was back in elementary school.
I do know a couple of people that still have dail up, but it's with the phone company.
Neel Chauhan
November 06, 2011 at 11:41am
AOL used to be everywhere. I remember that it came in your software, mailbox and grocery store, but good thing it went away because everyone went to broadband except the 3.5 million who want to move to areas where there is broadband.
w2ed
November 06, 2011 at 11:22am
Sad to say, I know of people who would still use AOL. They fall into a few categories:
- People who live in areas where there is no broadband and dialup was the only option,
- People who can't afford broadband and have no access to libraries that have free online access, and
- People who are uncomfortable with all of this "new-fangled technology."
We make fun of these people, yet maybe we shouldn't - in some cases, the government or industries have yet to reach them; in other cases, they just don't know any better. For the most part, I was once on AOL, and while there's no way I'd ever return, I'd probably recommend it to someone whose only option really is dial-up - chances are, there's probably very few local ISPs left, the Comcast's, AT&T's and Verizons (or other big namers) running them to ground. Just because most of us who read these articles and visit these sites are probably more technically advanced than a lot of peers, that does't mean we should make those around us feel inferior because they're not.
ShadowGryphon
November 06, 2011 at 11:18am
"Either way it’s a strong reminder that our governments need to work harder to provide proper broadband to all at reasonable prices. "
Pardon? since when is it the governments job to provide ANYTHING beyond providing for the common defense and promoting the general welfare of it's citizens?
Seeing to it that each and every citizen has broadband access does not fit under either.
Keep your political opinions to yourself.
Ghok
November 06, 2011 at 7:44pm
The government provides all sorts of things to its citizens. You know, like roads, safe drinking water, the fire department, libraries, the postal service... it also does plenty to try and ensure people get affordable prices on certain products or services. So, since a while now, actually. Maybe you don't like this, and that's cool... but there are quite a few people who are down with it.
I'd wager that government involvement in getting affordable broadband access for rural citizens is something most people are actually okay with... and I'd say broadband access falls pretty well under promoting the general welfare of its citizens.
TheZomb
November 06, 2011 at 6:59pm
Providing internet to underserved areas is promoting the general welfare. The increased productivity and oppurtunities for these people increases the general welfare of the nation.
This is not an issue of whether the government is given the right to subsidize broudband to underserved areas by the constitution (it does), it is an issue of whether it should. The answer to that is reliant on whether the increase to productivity is greater than the cost of subsidizing deployment.
Keith E. Whisman
November 06, 2011 at 1:54pm
Actually this is his job to provide oppinionated news on a very oppionionated website. This is not Maximum Anything Goes.com its MaximumPC after all and MaximumPC has given Justin Kerr the ability to speak his mind and get paid for it. If Max PC doesn't like Justin's free speach then they can fire him but until then he is getting paid to exercise his first amendment. I also feel he is mistaken in believing that the Government has to provide us with Broadband but that is his oppinion and I respect that and would be the last person to ask him to keep his oppions to himself especially since he is getting paid for it and I can just decide not to read his articles. Its not like the authors picture and name is'nt splattered at the top of every article here.
So say anything you want, make whatever comments you want, just don't tell another poster or MaxPC writer to keep his/her oppinion to themselves expecially since they are getting paid for it and they have the constitution to back them up. The first ten amendments to the constitution, AKA the bill of rights.
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
gatorXXX
November 06, 2011 at 10:55am
I have never used AOL. Well ok, I can't lie. I did use them as coasters on my desk.
win7fanboi
November 06, 2011 at 10:27am
wonder how many of them are mac users who were broke after buying a mac and had to cut costs.
TommM
November 06, 2011 at 9:58am
You gotta be kidding me. These subscribers must be in extreme rural places like Siberia or remote Africa. I can't remember the last time I ran into someone still using dial-up much less AOL. Maybe 5-6 years?
goodtime
November 07, 2011 at 7:37pm
You don't have to be very rural in order to have no broadband in your area.
IIAbeII
November 06, 2011 at 10:32am
Does canada qualify as siberia? My mom lives out in the country, and dial-up is all she can get.
Justin.Kerr
November 06, 2011 at 11:08am
I get 24MB service with no bandwidth cap for around $50 from a local indie ISP here in Canada. I also live in a pretty rural area, with a corn field outside my backyard. It all depends on where you live.
Keith E. Whisman
November 06, 2011 at 2:01pm
Didn't Canada ban uncapped Internet Service?
And since you are a Canadian why are you working at MaximumPC posting articles to the Website? You Canadians are taking our jobs. That is a job a US citizen would love to have and here a freaking canuck has it.
You toooooooook my job!
Justin.Kerr
November 06, 2011 at 5:29pm
The government put manditory bandwidth caps on hold at the last moment since they were heading into an election.
As for my country of origin, every publication needs at least one tokin Canadian.
Keith E. Whisman
November 06, 2011 at 11:48pm
LOL okay. Wonder why that little snippet wasn't reported, just the outrageous caps. good to hear it. Glad to see you understand my silly sense of humor.
