WSJ.com - Real Time: Dial-Up Access Starts to Die

WSJ.com - Real Time: Dial-Up Access Starts to Die "The big three providers of "premium" dial-up Internet access -- that is, access that costs somewhere around $20 a month -- all reported significant declines in dial-up customers in the latest quarter, a steady drop that is expected to continue. As far as we can tell, this is the first time all three reported losses in the same quarter. It will take years, but terms like "handshaking" and "fifty-three-six-k" are headed for the data dustbin.
In its first-period earnings report, released last week, AOL Time Warner's America Online said it lost 290,000 subscribers in the U.S., which accelerated from the fourth quarter, when AOL lost 176,000 subscribers, its first decline ever. AOL blamed a "maturing narrowband universe," and interestingly, the war in Iraq, for slower signups to replace defecting users in the first quarter. Many of these defectors are moving to broadband services."