WASHINGTON — For many people, connecting to the Internet at home required a dial- up subscription to America Online, back before it changed its name to AOL.
Now, despite the decade-long prevalence of broadband, which in most cases provided other, cheaper methods of getting to the Web, AOL still has 2.3 million dial-up customers.
The former online giant isn’t rushing to remind customers, who pay an average of $20.86 per month, that if they have broadband they don’t need AOL.
In its second-quarter earnings presentation, AOL reported its dial-up service generated about one-third of the company’s $607 million in sales last quarter, but an oversized amount of operating profit — $143 million, according to Quartz.
