I've been reading this topic with interest. We have DSL through a local ISP that's a woman-owned business. I have been with this ISP for years and love them. My business web stuff is also through them. When they messed up once they gave me two months free because it was their error. Our local phone co is Qwest - don't like them much as we always have trouble getting through to them and getting things fixed. But we have long distance through Working Assets. I like them because they give a percentage of every bill to charities, and once a year we get to vote on the charities to get money for the next year. We can 'round up' our bill if we choose so that extra money goes to the charities. They also have cell phone plans, but we haven't signed up for that yet.

Cable internet access is not necessarily better than DSL because you're actually sharing a line with your neighbors who also have cable internet access, so the speeds can be quite slow if everyone's online at the same time. DSL is a dedicated line for only your household. I was surprised to learn this in my tech class as I always thought cable would be faster.