We were surprised last summer when we learned that there were still 3 million lost souls who were trapped in AOL dial-up hell, since we figured that dial-up Internet service had gone the way of POGs and Beanie Babies as ’90s trends that had been mercifully relegated to the dustbin of history. But as Business Insider’s Henry Blodget points out, AOL’s (AOL) dial-up subscription service is still the company’s major money maker and produced an operating income before depreciation and amortization of $158.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Blodget notes that even though AOL’s dial-up business is still shrinking, it’s still producing “about $500 million a year… that AOL can use and is using to invest in other cool businesses (content and an ad network).” So take comfort, AOL dial-up subscribers: Your willingness to wait 45 minutes to watch a three-minute YouTube video is powering AOL’s other businesses to new and exciting heights.

Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.