Most of the people using the service live in remote areas

May 11, 2015 08:46 GMT  ·  By

AOL released its quarterly results on Friday, but what shocked people the most was not that the company had managed to surpass the expectations of Wall Street analysts regarding its first-quarter earnings, but the fact that 2.1 million people from the U.S. still use its dial-up service.

A survey conducted by Pew Research Center showed that around 70 percent of Americans use broadband Internet at home, so it is unclear why there are still so many people who prefer the 56k experience to other much faster Internet services in an era where most websites require high-bandwidth.

Most people using it don't really have a choice

What’s more, people actually pay 20$ (€17.9) for the annoying sound of the modem and for ever-loading Internet pages. It is obvious that no one would actually opt for this service unless they absolutely had to.

Therefore, it is very likely that the customers that AOL can still boast about are people living in remote areas or where the cost of high-speed Internet is too high.

Another very likely possibility is that the people still using this method to stay connected are elderly people who have gotten used to it and wouldn't give it up for the world. Plus, they probably only use it for the most basic things and stay away from social media sites where videos are highly predominant.

In other words, this impressive number of people using the dial-up Internet connection is made up of Americans with low income or living in rural areas where Google Fiber has yet to arrive and senior citizens.

There is, however, another category of people who are using it for free. Apart from those who are in free trial periods, meaning that they are planning on discovering the Internet with some help from AOL’s creaking modem, there are also those who don’t have to pay a thing for the amazing services "through member service and retention programs."

Or, funnily enough, there are also those who have switched to broadband, but still pay the extra money for the dial-up because they think it is the only way they can keep their AOL accounts.

Although the number of people who are still using AOL’s services is slowly decreasing, it might take a while before we stop hearing about the timeworn form of Internet access.