A lot of people are on an in-between plan, having cancelled the dialup portion but kept the online service through a cheaper plan. AOL made that free in 2006, b

A lot of people are on an in-between plan, having cancelled the dialup portion but kept the online service through a cheaper plan. AOL made that free in 2006, but only if you notice and change your billing. My parents had AOL dialup in the '90s, and when they got cable broadband around 2001 or 2002, they switched to AOL's $10/mo bring-your-own-access version, because they wanted to keep their email addresses and some stuff they used in AOL's client at the time. AOL made that free in 2006, but didn't switch you automatically: you had to call up and ask to switch to the free plan, which had become identical to the pay plan except for the $10/mo fee. I'm sure many people are still paying that $10/mo, either because they don't know the free plan exists, or don't realize it's identical.