The shrill is gone: AOL to shut down dial-up internet
It also made AOL one of the biggest tech firms of the era, but in the following decades the dial-up connections were steadily replaced with much faster ADSL and then fibre-optic lines.
"AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue dial-up internet," the pioneering internet service provider (ISP) said in a blog post.
AOL did not say how many users would be affected by the September 30 shutoff.
CNBC reported that numbers using dial-up had fallen from around 2.1 million in 2015 to just a few thousand in 2021.
AOL merged with Time Warner in a 2001 mega-deal worth $162 billion at the peak of the dotcom bubble.
After splitting off again, it was sold to Verizon in 2015 for a far humbler $4.4 billion.
AOL was merged with another early internet heavyweight, Yahoo, and sold to the investment fund Apollo Global Management for $5 billion in 2021.
Its once widely used chat programme AIM, launched in 1997 and beloved of early-2000s teens, was shut down in 2017.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fashion Network
2 hours ago
- Fashion Network
Trump signs order extending China tariff truce by 90 days, White House says
The new order prevents US tariffs on Chinese goods from shooting up to 145%, while Chinese tariffs on US goods were set to hit 125% - rates that would have resulted in a virtual trade embargo between the two countries. It locks in place - at least for now - a 30% tariff on Chinese imports, with Chinese duties on US imports at 10%. "We'll see what happens," Trump told a news conference earlier on Monday, highlighting what he called his good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. "It's positive news. Combined with some of the de-escalatory steps both the United States and China have taken in recent weeks, it demonstrated that both sides are trying to see if they can reach some kind of a deal that would lay the groundwork for a Xi-Trump meeting this fall," said Wendy Cutler, a former senior US trade official who is now a vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Trump told CNBC last week that the US and China were getting very close to a trade agreement and he would meet with Xi before the end of the year if a deal was struck. The two sides in May announced a truce in their trade dispute after talks in Geneva, Switzerland, agreeing to a 90-day period to allow further talks. They met again in Stockholm, Sweden, in late July, and US negotiators returned to Washington with a recommendation that Trump extend the deadline. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said repeatedly that the triple-digit import duties both sides slapped on each other's goods in the spring were untenable and had essentially imposed a trade embargo between the world's two largest economies. "It wouldn't be a Trump-style negotiation if it didn't go right down to the wire," said Kelly Ann Shaw, a senior White House trade official during Trump's first term and now with law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. She said Trump had likely pressed China for further concessions before agreeing to the extension. Trump pushed for additional concessions on Sunday, urging China to quadruple its soybean purchases, although analysts questioned the feasibility of any such deal. Trump did not repeat the demand on Monday. "The whole reason for the 90-day pause in the first place was to lay the groundwork for broader negotiations and there's been a lot of noise about everything from soybeans to export controls to excess capacity over the weekend," Shaw said. Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official now with the King & Spalding law firm, said the news would give both sides more time to work through longstanding trade concerns. 'This will undoubtedly lower anxiety on both sides as talks continue, and as the US and China work toward a framework deal in the fall," he said. Imports from China early this year had surged to beat Trump's tariffs, but dropped steeply in June, Commerce Department data showed last week. The US trade deficit with China tumbled by roughly a third in June to $9.5 billion, its narrowest since February 2004. Over five consecutive months of declines, the US trade gap with China has narrowed by $22.2 billion - a 70% reduction from a year earlier. No formal announcement was immediately released. The Treasury Department and U.S. Trade Representative's Office did not respond to requests for comment. Washington has also been pressing Beijing to stop buying Russian oil, with Trump threatening to impose secondary tariffs on China.
France 24
10 hours ago
- France 24
Trump extends tariff truce with China for 90 days
US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a delay in the reimposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, hours before a trade truce between Washington and Beijing was due to expire. The White House 's halt on steeper tariffs will be in place until November 10. "I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. While the United States and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other's products this year, bringing them to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower them. Their 90-day halt of steeper levies had been due to expire Tuesday. Around the same time that Trump confirmed the new extension, Chinese state media Xinhua news agency published a joint statement from US-China talks in Stockholm saying it would also extend its side of the truce. China will continue suspending its earlier tariff hike for 90 days starting August 12 while retaining a 10-percent duty, the report said. It would also "take or maintain necessary measures to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures against the United States, as agreed in the Geneva joint declaration," Xinhua reported. In the executive order posted Tuesday to its website, the White House reiterated its position that there are "large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits" and they "constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States." The order acknowledged Washington's ongoing discussions with Beijing "to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationship" and noted that China has continued to "take significant steps toward remedying" the US complaints. The 90-day extension means the truce is now set to expire just after midnight on November 10. - Trump-Xi summit? - "Beijing will be happy to keep the US-China negotiation going, but it is unlikely to make concessions," warned William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. He believes China sees its leverage over rare earth exports as a strong one, and that Beijing will likely use it to pressure Washington. US-China Business Council president Sean Stein said the current extension is "critical to give the two governments time to negotiate an agreement" providing much-needed certainty for companies to make plans. A trade deal, in turn, would "pave the way for a Trump-Xi summit this fall," said Asia Society Policy Institute senior vice president Wendy Cutler. But Cutler, herself a former US trade official, said: "This will be far from a walk in the park." Even as both countries reached a pact to cool tensions after high level talks in Geneva in May, the de-escalation has been shaky. Key economic officials convened in London in June as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers met again in Stockholm last month. Trump said in a social media post Sunday that he hoped China will "quickly quadruple its soybean orders," adding this would be a way to balance trade with the United States. As part of their May truce, fresh US tariffs targeting China were reduced to 30 percent and the corresponding level from China was cut to 10 percent. Separately, since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10-percent "reciprocal" tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair. This surged to varying steeper levels last Thursday for dozens of economies. Major partners like the European Union, Japan and South Korea now see a 1 5-percent US duty on many products, while the level went as high as 41 percent for Syria. The "reciprocal" tariffs exclude sectors that have been targeted individually, such as steel and aluminum, and those that are being investigated like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. They are also expected to exclude gold, although a clarification by US customs authorities made public last week caused concern that certain gold bars might still be targeted. Trump said Monday that gold imports will not face additional tariffs, without providing further details. The president has taken separate aim at individual countries such as Brazil over the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup, and India over its purchase of Russian oil.
France 24
13 hours ago
- France 24
Trump meets with Intel CEO after demanding he resign
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he met with Lip-Bu Tan along with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent. "The meeting was a very interesting one," Trump said in the post. "His success and rise is an amazing story." Trump added that members of his cabinet are going to spend time with Tan and bring the president "suggestions" next week. Intel did not respond to a request for comment. Trump demanded last week that the recently-hired boss of Intel resign "immediately," after a Republican senator raised national security concerns over his links to firms in China. "The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem," Trump posted on Truth Social last Thursday. Tan released a statement at the time saying that the company was engaged with the Trump administration to address the concerns raised and ensure officials "have the facts." Intel is one of Silicon Valley's most iconic companies but its fortunes have been dwarfed by Asian powerhouses TSMC and Samsung, which dominate the made-to-order semiconductor business. In a statement, Tan said there has been "a lot of misinformation circulating" about his past roles at Walden International and Cadence Design Systems. "I have always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards," Tan said. The Malaysia-born tech industry veteran took the helm at struggling Intel in March, announcing layoffs as White House tariffs and export restrictions muddied the market. Intel's niche has been chips used in traditional computing processes, which are steadily being eclipsed by the AI revolution.
