A historical look at the rise and fall of free dial-up internet services in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Companies like NetZero, Juno, and FreeInet offered no-cost internet access funded by displaying ads to users. The model worked while online ad rates were inflated during the dot-com boom, but collapsed after the dot-com crash in 2000 as ad revenue dried up. Broadband adoption ultimately killed dial-up entirely. These services were notable as early pioneers of ad-supported internet and freemium pricing models.
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