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Recommendations for a cheap US dial-up provider?

I’m in the market for a cheap US dial-up internet provider. I’m connected via broadband most of the time but I really need to get a backup modem account. In the UK, dialup accounts are available for free with the cost of the phone call as the only charge applied. I haven’t heard of any similar deals in the states, so I’m looking for recommendations. I won’t be using it very often so the cheaper the better.

Posted 21st February 2004 at 1:17 am

This is Recommendations for a cheap US dial-up provider? by Simon Willison, posted on 21st February 2004.

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10 comments

  1. Some ISP's provide a backup dial up for broadband connections. I know that earthlink does, I have their cable service through TimeWarner and there are multiple backup telephone numbers I could use with my account.

    Kjell Olsen - 21st February 2004 01:40 - #

  2. Try calling your broadband ISP to see if they offer free dial-up accounts. My ISP, SBC Yahoo!, offers free accounts if you call up and request one.

    Henning Seljenes - 21st February 2004 02:08 - #

  3. Haven't tried it myself, but I hear NetZero's pretty good.

    Devon - 21st February 2004 02:10 - #

  4. We used BudgetDialup as a temporary account when we were vacationing in States for 3 weeks last year, and we'd use them again. They are prepaid, either metered by the hour or unlimited access by the month.

    Scott - 21st February 2004 06:42 - #

  5. earthlink has a low cost dial-up service they call "people PC" for $9.95 a month. that might be the best option. or you can sign-up for GPRS service from one of the carriers and that will take care of all the problems of using a dial-up service. of course tons of free hot spots around in US.

    Om Malik - 21st February 2004 17:14 - #

  6. If you only need it for backup, NetZero is free for something like 10 hours a month.

    Sumit - 21st February 2004 18:00 - #

  7. A 2nd motion for Earthlink broadband. I have Earthlink DSL and they offer a certain number of hours per month for dial-up, which you can use at home or on the road.

    Shawn Wheatley - 23rd February 2004 14:59 - #

  8. NetZero is probably the best option. I used to have it and it was usually a fairly good connection at a decent price (Free for a set amount of time) and $9.95/month for uninterrupted connectivity.

    Stephan Segraves - 25th February 2004 15:32 - #

  9. If you have an 803.11b card you can always go to a Starbucks. Many hotels now have network access too.

    Tanny O'Haley - 26th February 2004 23:19 - #

  10. Oops. That should be 802.11b wireless card.

    Tanny O'Haley - 27th February 2004 19:20 - #

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