Still use dial-up?

I remember the aol dial up and the constant aol disc trials that were sent in the mail. This was nearing the end of the myspace era and it would do just fine for the job. Having to log in every time was a pain and the internet connection moved at a snails pace - we really have improved so much since then.

Most places that are somewhat restricted because of the lack of infrastructure still use dial up. This only applies for remote areas and such. I am sure it is only a very small percentage of people who only have dial up as an option.

 

Early in 2010 or thereabouts a study reported that only 6% of people in the U.S still used dial up. The word used was "CLUNG." Only 6% percent clung to dial up. By 2013 the numbers had been cut by half. So, as of last year in the U.S only 3% of internet users rely in dial up connections. Some cite cost while others well . . . it's the infrastructure [or the lack of it as Jake says] that forces them to use what's available.

Occasionally I also try to use dial up but the speeds or so painfully slow that I opt not to browse at all if there's an issue with my regular connection. For those who've got used to faster internet, I think you'd be like me. It's much better to not get on net rather than wait for a web page to load for 5 minutes.

 

We still used dial up as back up internet connection for our office back in 2007-08. The facilities in our area was still being improved then so downtimes were really common. The dial up was enough for corresponding through emails and nothing more. Browsing was a pain and connection was lost when the phone rang. When the cables were laid down permanently, it was bliss all the way.

 

When I still did not have access to a broadband connection, I used dial up. But now that broadband connection has become more affordable, I stopped buying prepaid dial-up cards. They are very slow and take at least 20 minutes to download a 6 MB song. The last time I used them was this year when my broadband network was down.

 

I have not used dial up in years. Not even as a backup. I agree with Denis in that I'd rather not get on the internet at all than use dial up. I remember how slow just browsing could be. Trying to download a song took an eternity. I am so glad that we've left dial up behind us.

 

It's been a long time since I've used dial up, I don't think that it exists anymore in my country, the slowest here is 512kbps broadband. I remember first using a 56k connection and was fascinated by the internet. It wasn't smooth though, it was a prepaid subscription so I can't keep it connected. Each time it took more than 10 times to get a connection.

 

I believe I'm one of those people who frequently used dial-up in 2010 . Though it was also in that year that I got my first DSL connection. I decided to focus on online work later that year and I know that I will not go anywhere (or earn anything) if I still stick to my dial-up connection.

 

Dial-up is mostly used in areas where people literally have no other option. They don't know what high-speed Internet is. Then again, communications companies advertise download and upload speeds that we, as customers, never achieve. So we're getting fast Internet but not what they advertise, so it's technically false advertisement. Don't mind me going off on a random tangent. I remember dial-up, and it was never TOO horrible...unless someone called the phone line and then the connection went down. I don't miss that...

 

I tried to use it a bit recently, and it's damn near impossible to open any web pages at all. The reason being, I switched over to T-Mobile for their "Unlimited" data plans and their no-contract deals. While I've been generally pleased with their service so far, I did find out their so-called unlimited data is *really* stretching the truth. In reality, once you use up your 4G data allotment based on your plan, they switch you over to their old 2G networks - it's not even 3G. From what I've read, the old 2G connection was about the speed of dial-up or maybe isdn. My phone allows me to switch to whatever network speed I want, so I was trying out the 2G a few times just for the heck of it to see what it would be like. It was awful, I honestly couldn't open much of anything - forget Youtube, and Facebook is more or less unusable. It still kind of amazed me though, since I used to work in Web Design about 10 years ago, and back then I was still designing web sites to be dial-up friendly and always checking the hell out of my page load times to make sure I wasn't alienating people on dialup.

 

Absolutely not! There's no way I could handle that at all.

But yes, it's still available in some areas. It's not usually going to be in big cities, but in smaller or older cities without a lot of people, dialup is still an option...sometimes the ONLY option still yet.

 

Dail up is still offered by some companies but many of them now offer DLS. I do not use sail up anymore because of the slow connection. Where I live all I can get is satellite internet which is not that fast either.