The new Verizon wireless internet service gives about 80Kbps to 120Kbps (roughly double what a modem can do) pretty much anywhere a cell phone can find a connection. Charge is only barely not obscene, but it might be spendy, in the $60-80 per month range.
In metro areas, they claim multiple megabits of connection speed. But they charge out the wazzoo for that.
Another option, that I did for a few years before DSL was available in my neighborhood... was to set up with my ISP for a multi-connection account. Most ISP's can do this. Basically it means that you can hook two or more modems to your computer... and dial all of them in to the same number, and they're all bound together by the ISP into one logical connection.
I had two phone lines, so I'd dial out on both of them, bind them into one logical connection, and instead of one 56K modem I had a workable 96K connection, more or less (some bandwidth is lost in overhead). It worked pretty well for high-bandwidth apps like the online game-playing in Unreal Tournament.
I ain't payin' $60 a month fer internet...