Wow, what horror stories, especially your experience clytle374 !
I suffered dial up until about 8 months ago. Phone line ADSL was not available on my line until just recently. A new service which is a 2.5 GHz microwave tower link to an indoor RX/TX+modem is available here called Bell WiMax. I have been very pleased with it except for a recent period which was when Bell's local equipment was hopelessly overloaded due to increased demand and the hardware had to be upgraded. In all that only cost me a few days of lost service and now all is a Ukranian Fishing Vessel, ya' know...Hunky Dory.
In Ontario, Rogers offers the same service and uses the same broadcasting towers but shares half the total channels with Bell using the other half. If you are too far from a tower to use a indoor modem that you purchase and own for $100.00, you can buy a outdoor unit that has more range for a lot more $$$. I get a 80% signal most of the time with the indoor unit, sometimes 100%. Download is advertised as 1.5GB/sec which is the same as a T1 line. Uplink is slower but adequate for software VOIP phones. My MagicJack works adequately to great most of the time. Viewing streaming TV and downloading movies is good. I bought the faster of the two packages offered by Bell Wireless and pay about $55 /mo. When I signed up they gave me the first couple of months 'free' so actually I got my $100 modem for nothing.
A benefit of WiMax is that I can pack the microwave modem with me and my laptop when I travel and from my car have internet or VOIP phone or anywhere in Canada that has the service. This gives me internet while visiting family in Toronto. If I had a DSL modem account this would not be possible, even from my Mom's telco line.
BTW, if you haven't heard of MagicJack, it is a small device that plugs into your computer's USB port. A regular analog touch tone phone plugs into the regular phone jack on the other end of this little dongle. It self loads and gives you a dial tone and phone service. I bought the NorthAmercian plan that gives me unlimited local and long distance calling in USA and Canada for 5 years for $59.00. Yes, that's like a dollar a month!!! I think this is the best deal in town. I'm not a dealer. Check out
www.magicjack.com if interested.