Duke to End Its Dialup Modem Service

June 10, 2008

The Duke University Office of Information Technology will discontinue its dialup modem services on July 14. Home dialup users who wish to retain Internet access must subscribe to an alternative service. This service change affects only the ability to use a modem to connect to Duke’s network and to the Internet through Duke. It does not change e-mail, webmail, or other service offerings.

OIT has negotiated favorable rates and priority support services for home broadband services with Time Warner Cable. Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, which grant access to protected Duke resources from remote networks, also are available. Details can be found at http://www.oit.duke.edu/network/remote/index.html.

Duke’s decision to end its dialup service follows years of declining use that corresponds with the rise of widely available, low-cost home broadband options. OIT evaluated all aspects of the service and contacted each of the 160 users of dialup in the past year. OIT will be contacting each of these users again with links to third-party dialup services.