Dial-up Internet access
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Active modem
Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched
telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a
telephone number on a conventional telephone line. Dial-up connections use modems to decode audio
signals into data to send to a router or computer, and to encode signals from the latter two devices to
send to another modem.
Contents
1 History
2 Availability
3 Replacement by broadband
4 Performance
4.1 Using compression to exceed 56k
4.1.1 Compression by the ISP
4.2 List of dial-up speeds & sounds
5 Usage in other devices
6 References
History
In 1979, Tom Truscott and Steve Bellovin, graduates of Duke University, created an early predecessor to
dial-up Internet access called the USENET. The USENET was a UNIX based system that used a dial-up
connection to transfer data through telephone modems.[1] Dial-up Internet has been around since the
1980s via public providers such as NSFNET-linked universities. The BBC established Internet access via
Brunel University in the United Kingdom in 1989.[2] Dial-up was first offered commercially in 1992 by
Pipex in the United Kingdom and Sprint in the United States.[3][4] After the introduction of commercial
broadband in the late 1990s,[5] dial-up Internet access became less popular in the mid-2000s. It is still
used where other forms are not available or where the cost is too high, as in some rural or remote
areas.[6][7]
Availability
Banks of modems used by an ISP to provide dial-up internet service
Dial-up connections to the Internet require no additional infrastructure other than the telephone
network and the modems and servers needed to make and answer the calls. Because telephone access
is widely available, dial-up is often the only choice available for rural or remote areas, where broadband
installations are not prevalent due to low population density and high infrastructure cost.[8] Dial-up
access may also be an alternative for users on limited budgets, as it is offered free by some ISPs, though
broadband is increasingly available at lower prices in many countries due to market competition.
[citation needed]
Dial-up requires time to establish a telephone connection (up to several seconds, depending on the
location) and perform configuration for protocol synchronization before data transfers can take place. In
locales with telephone connection charges, each connection incurs an incremental cost. If calls are time-
metered, the duration of the connection incurs costs.[citation needed]
Dial-up access is a transient connection, because either the user, ISP or phone company terminates the
connection. Internet service providers will often set a limit on connection durations to allow sharing of
resources, and will disconnect the user—requiring reconnection and the costs and delays associated
with it. Technically inclined users often find a way to disable the auto-disconnect program such that they
can remain connected for more days than one.[citation needed]
A 2008 Pew Research Center study stated that only 10% of US adults still used dial-up Internet access.
The study found that the most common reason for retaining dial-up access was high broadband prices.
Users cited lack of infrastructure as a reason less often than stating that they would never upgrade to
broadband.[9] That number had fallen to 6% by 2010,[10] and to 3% by 2013.[11]
The CRTC estimated that there were 336,000 Canadian dial-up users in 2010.[12]
Replacement by broadband
Broadband Internet access via cable, digital subscriber line, satellite and FTTx has replaced dial-up access
in many parts of the world. Broadband connections typically offer speeds of 700 kbit/s or higher for two-
thirds more than the price of dial-up on average.[10] In addition broadband connections are always on,
thus avoiding the need to connect and disconnect at the start and end of each session. Broadband does
not require exclusive use of a phone line, and thus one can access the Internet and at the same time
make and receive voice phone calls without having a second phone line.
However, many rural areas remain without high speed Internet despite the eagerness of potential
customers. This can be attributed to population, location, or sometimes ISPs' lack of interest due to little
chance of profitability and high costs to build the required infrastructure. Some dial-up ISPs have
responded to the increased competition by lowering their rates and making dial-up an attractive option
for those who merely want email access or basic web browsing.[13][14]
Dial-up Internet access has undergone a precipitous fall in usage, and potentially approaches extinction
as modern users turn towards broadband. In contrast to the year 2000 when about 34% of the U.S.
population used dial-up, this dropped to 3% in 2013.[15] One contributing factor to the extinction of
dial-up is the bandwidth requirements of newer computer programs, like antivirus software, which
automatically download sizable updates in the background when a connection to the Internet is first
made. These background downloads can take several minutes or longer and, until all updates are
completed, they can severely impact the amount of bandwidth available to other applications like web
browsers. Since an "always on" broadband is the norm expected by most newer applications being
developed[citation needed], this automatic background downloading trend is expected to continue to
eat away at dial-up's available bandwidth to the detriment of dial-up users' applications.[16] Many
newer websites also now assume broadband speeds as the norm and when confronted with slower dial-
up speeds may drop (timeout) these slower connections to free up communication resources. On
websites that are designed to be more dial-up friendly, use of a reverse proxy prevents dial-ups from
being dropped as often but can introduce long wait periods for dial-up users caused by the buffering
used by a reverse proxy to bridge the different data rates. Despite the rapid decline, dial-up Internet still
does exist in aforementioned rural areas, or many area of developing and underdeveloped nations.
Performance
