Amusing little press release just crossed my path: In these tough economic times, EarthLink is pushing dial-up Internet for 25-cents a day, which the company conveniently broke down for reporters.

Yes.. dial-up still exists! In fact, EarthLink  says it has 1.8 million customers, down 10 percent from the 2 million the company told me it had last September. Shrinking or not, dial up is still the Internet choice for many. But is it really a good buy?

For 25-cents a day, or $7.95 per month, you get the retro Internet speeds of 56,000 bits per second. That means you must wait 22 minutes to download 11 photos instead of 1 minute using EarthLink’s slowest high-speed option. EarthLink is attempting to appeal to “those recently laid off and  looking for jobs.” Is saving a few dollars a month worth your time?

Somehow, I feel one can do better. While the local telecoms are no longer competing on price as they were in September, there are still some decent deals out there that will get you Internet much faster than dial-up.

AT&T’s best deal is $10 per month, or 33-cents a day, for new customers who commit to a 1-year contract and order home phone service. After that, the price goes up to $19.95 per month, but as other readers have mentioned, it’s negotiable if you call up customer service. Speeds are a minimum 768 kbps, which is about 13-times faster than dial-up.

Verizon is offering 1 mbps DSL for $17.99 a month, a price “guaranteed never to go up.” Home phone service is also required, otherwise price jumps to $19.99/month or 66-cents a day.

For those too cheap to pay for Internet but who enjoy a cup of Starbucks coffee at least once a month, join Starbucks rewards card to get 2 hours of free Wi-Fi in stores every day. You’ll also get unlimited free drip-coffee refills during the same visit while you’re sitting around surfing the web.

Another freebie comes from NetZero and Juno, which offer 10 hours of free dial-up per month. The ad-supported services includes e-mail, spam and virus protection and thousands of numbers nationwide.   More info at these links:

• NetZero: www2.netzero.net/start/landing.do?page=www/free/index
• Juno: account.juno.com/s/landing?action=viewProduct&productId=free

Getting back to EarthLink’s 25-cent special, the “Connect for Less” plan comes from its budget-minded PeoplePC service. The plan, at peoplepc.com/go/connect4less, includes customer service, spam and virus protection and 12,000 dial-up phone numbers nationwide. For the year, it’s $95.64. And right now, PeoplePC is running a promotion that rewards every 795th new customer with free service for one year.

A company spokesperson said that this price comes with no strings and no commitment. It’s a pay-as-you-go deal with a set price, unlike EarthLink’s other offerings, which revert to “regular” price after three months. (Earthlink’s own dial-up service goes up to outrageous $21.95 per month after 3 months at $9.95. That seems especially high considering one can order Verizon’s FiOS Internet for $45/month and get speeds of 10 Mbps that are around 200-times faster than dial-up.)

Compared to EarthLink’s other offerings, dial-up is much cheaper. Its DSL starts at $12.95 per month then jumps to the regular price of $39.95 in month four. (Note: This ‘regular’ price isn’t listed on EarthLink’s site. I got it after chatting online with customer service rep “Ulric J.,” who offered to waive the $99 equipment and activation fee.) Grand total for the year: $398.40, excluding extra fees, or $1.09 per day.

PeoplePC’s 25-cents a day beats the other dial-up competition, including AOL (at $9.99/month or 33-cents/day),NetZero (at $9.95/month with first month free, or 30-cents/day) and MSN (at $18.95/month with first month free or 57-cents/day). But if you search around for deals, you may be rewarded, such as this link I found for NetZero dial-up service for $6.95 per month.

More sites to check out:

Cheapest broadband service (DSLReports.com)

How to shop for DSL deals (DSLDealsReview.org)

Recent deal news on Gadgetress:

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