First, there are 50 million U.S. homes linked to the Internet today, and 48 million of them have slow dial-up modems.

FORBES: Above the fray

It allows for connections at about the speed of current dial-up modems, several times faster than the 9.6 or 14.4 kilobits per second now available.

FORBES: Wireless: The Next Generation

While Dash has done a good job of keeping the overall system responsive, it can't completely hide the effective difference between broadband and early dial-up modems.

ENGADGET: Switched On: Dash delivers open roads, open questions (Part 1)

Main.net's gear already serves 10, 000 European homes at speeds of 500 kilobits a second, roughly equal to average cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) speeds, but a tenfold increase over standard dial-up modems.

FORBES: Tilting at power lines

But 2.5G systems still transfer data at more than twice the rate of dial-up Internet modems found in homes.

CNN: Stuck On the Runway

Right now the company relies on dial-up ISDN and 56K bps modems for most of its Internet access.

CNN: Europe's first ADSL service launches

He says those on-ramps have gotten better in the last decade, as cable and DSL modems have replaced slower dial-up connections.

NPR: Broadening the Reach of Broadband