The economy is slow:

1. There is a mortgage crisis
2. Middle-aged people are finding it hard to get work
3. Gas prices are high, which affects the price of production and shipping, therefore it affects almost everything (like food prices)

I don’t need to go into too much detail about how everyone is spending more to maintain the same quality of life or how more people have less money. The bottom line is that many of us need to start tightening our belts.

This means making sacrifices. Eating out costs more than eating at home. Getting coffee at Starbucks costs more than brewing it yourself. Broadband connections cost more than dialup.

I expect more people will be using dial up internet until the economy starts on its upswing again. It's low cost and flexibility certainly lend itself to being a broadband-substitute for a short period of time. It’s not going to save a family from financial ruin, but the savings add up.

Disclaimer before I continue:

I understand the following: You can’t stream video over dial up. You can’t download movies, music, games, etc… Even downloading updates for software will take forever. There will be broadband withdrawal symptoms as you have to wait a few seconds longer for each web page to load. Watching Zero Punctuation will have to be done at work or be planned out 30 minutes in advance. Also, if you eliminated your land line in favor of cell or VOIP, then you are also taking on an additional cost for the phone service.

So why should you switch to dial up?

Dial up is cheap

For about $7.00/month, you get connected to the internet. There usually aren’t any bells or whistles, but you get e-mail, you can read up on blogs (although feed-readers suddenly become even more useful), and most of the normal stuff you do.

Dial up is flexible

Any Dial-Up ISP worth its salt will not have a contract and will give you a 30-day money back guarantee. You can try it for a month and if you absolutely hate it, you can switch back. If you find that your brain hasn’t exploded waiting for pages to load and you can get by for a few months, keep it as long as you need to without a commitment.

American Technical support

Several small dial up companies manage all their technical support in-house. While I appreciate that people in other countries learn a second language to support their families, I also appreciate a company that keeps its tech support in the US. It makes getting through a problem that much easier.

So go ahead and try it for yourself. There’s nothing to lose, except some dollars in the “expense” column of your budget!

We all remember the golden age of the internet, when 56.6kb/s modems zoomed across the information super highway much like the muscle cars of the 1950’s. With v92, the possibilities of dial up seemed endless. And then, like Scar and his hyenas entering the Pridelands, broadband invaded and ravaged the landscape of the internet. But let me take you back to a simpler time by reminding you of what made dial up internet so great. More...