Optus is killing off its dial-up internet service – some 20 years after the carrier entered the Australian internet market, three years after Telstra announced it was retiring dial-up services, and two years after the Australian Bureau of Statistics stopped counting dial-up in its half-yearly report.
The Optus Dial Up Internet Service will be closed from 15 July 2018, amid the "progressive rollout and widespread availability" of NBN connections, the carrier revealed in a blog post.
"As we continue to build a network that’s fit for the future, occasionally we have to say goodbye to older technologies and products."
Customers are being told to switch to an alternative Optus fixed-line product, as long as they are in a serviceable area. Users that switch to Optus Broadband will get a $10 discount off their monthly broadband access fee for six months.
They will also need to have an active Optus Broadband service if they want to transfer their email address or website.
The ABS counted 90,000 dial-up internet subscribers in June 2016, the last year subscriber numbers were included in its half-yearly internet activity report. Dial-up was no longer an applicable response category for type of internet connections as of December 2016.
In contrast, in March 2003 there were 4.6 million business and household dial-up connections in Australia
Telstra announced in June 2015 that it would retire its dial-up internet service by December 2015 due to "the expanded availability of ADSL/ADSL2/VDSL, cable, fibre, wireless and satellite broadband solutions, including over the National Broadband Network, and the continued decline in the use of dial-up".
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