Half a million and growing in rural US
120,000 holdouts across rural US
1,200 accounts unknowingly subscribed
2.1 million, down from 3 million in 2012
Choose wisely! The correct answer, the explanation, and an intriguing story await.
Correct Answer: 2.1 million, down from 3 million in 2012

And now, for some context

According to the quarterly earnings report AOL released on May 2015, 2.1 million people were still signed up to the company's dial-up service at a time when some 70% of Americans accessed the Internet over broadband with an average connection speed of 11.4 MB/s.

As surprising as it might be that the company still had over two million dial-up subscribers in 2015, many of them were leaving each year with the membership declining from 4.6 million dial-up users in 2010 and 3 million in 2012.

It was reported in 2015 that the average AOL dial-up user was paying $20 a month, although the 2.1 million figure also included people on free trials and those with free service after threatening to leave AOL.

A 2009 Pew Research study indicated that 32% of dial-up users either couldn't afford to upgrade, couldn't get broadband in their area, or simply didn't care to change.

Since then, dial-up has all but disappeared. By 2019, only about 0.2 % (roughly 300,000 households) remained on dial-up, and a 2022 census report put the number at just 175,000 households. With 90 % broadband penetration as of 2021, dial-up has become a nearly extinct footnote in American internet history.