The classic dial-up handshake sounds melodic, scratched and hard and is inexcusably connected to connection. It is now also silent. AOL’s decision this week to finally finish call service is not surprising, but it still feels like a door closure, one I went through several times than I can count to step on the World Wide Web.
It’s a healthy immortal in Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan Rom-Com from 1998 You have mailA movie in which the then insanely popular AOL service drives the plot to its surprising and deeply romantic conclusion.
When I first started covering and working online, AOL was one of the most important portals for the new digital world, and the only way to cross this portal was via a call modem, one connected to your PC on the one hand and your phone line on the other. (Having a phone line close to your computer was a big deal kids today is spoiled by ubiquitous, high-speed-wi-fi … but I’ll take off.)
In today’s always -connected world, it’s hard to imagine the intentionality of this action. In the 1990s, our phones were mute and your computer treated local networks and files. We called Call “Going Online” because it was like taking a trip where the way of transportation was a small box with the magic code to connect you to the Internet and eventually the information Superhighway.
Before the home broadband, all the handshake sounded, and yes, millions called AOL (America Online) – its own network – to access the Internet.
If you broke down the call process, you can look at it as two different parts: the call of the AOL number, and then a series of negotiating sounds, all designed to make sure the modem was legitimate and speak the right language. When the system on the other side of the connection was satisfied, you would be connected and soon hear, “You have mail.”
This mail system was also an integral part of AOL. There was no gmail, and far fewer people used online mail systems from Yahoo or even Microsoft (I have to add that these days, having an @hotmail.com mail account is related to some to have an @aol.com mail account).
Dial-Up started its rapid fall in the late 1990s when cable companies introduced broadband over coaxial cable. Instead of knocking on the Internet’s door with a phone call, paved broadband an open path to the digital world. One day we had the classic call sound in my home and the next day we didn’t.
Dial-up continued to serve a purpose well into the first decade of the new millennium, and broadband took years to reach rural areas. In 2009, Netzero tried to bring back calls as an affordable alternative to expensive broadband. Imagine someone trying to sell consumers on the horse and buggy decades after the car had become ubiquitous. It was a terrible plan, and in my opinion to put broadband back for a few years.
Still, the number of people still using calls had dropped to 175,000 in 2022. I’m sure the number today could match the population of a very small town in Central America. I hope AOL at least support those who still can’t connect to cable or fiber.
It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. In recent years, other large companies with names starting with A have turned their backs on call technology.
My sadness is not ennui in a better time. It’s really just nostalgia for a digital snapshot, a moment when we had to make an effort to get connected and then wait in anticipation as the modem ended its digital handshake before opening the door to reveal the growing world of digital connections and information. I wonder if we might appreciate the miracle of the connection more for the efforts involved.
We take it for granted now; And Gen Z particularly has no idea what it means to prime the pump to online before adding an Instagram post. But what if they did? What if we declared just once a year it ‘call day’ and you had to run a false modem handshake before you could use your laptop or smartphone?
I’m ridiculous, I know, but the thought makes me smile.
