??? You know a DSL connection ($14.95) is cheaper today than Dial-up ($29.95), as well as being much MUCH faster, don't you Yep. I also know I'm a good 8 cable miles from the Ma Bell Central Office. COMCAST stops a quarter mile away. Cell signals are hit and miss. I'm in a rural area. Rural enough to have a well. The only reason I can even get 52K is because I live a half mile from Telco's SLICK System. Hughesnet? Not likely. I'm on the north slope of a high ridge behind me. I can't even get local TV signals. So I'm stuck paying for two land lines right now. My only option {at major cost} would be a four wire data circuit.
MaBell is still cheaper on DSL and that comes through a landline phone.
You've heard of Satellite Internet and TV service, haven't you?
Check out this review online,
Best Satellite Internet Providers in 2014.
I live way out in the sticks also, and I'm at the end of the phone line for phone service from a small town 30 miles away.
My next door neighbor, about 700 feet south of me, is on a landline from a smaller town 25 miles west of us.
And cell phone service out here is, you go out in the yard and walk around until you get one or two bars of signal before you even try to connect to make a call.
I've got DSL Internet over AT&T and I've got satellite TV, and they're both well worth the monthly fee.