I have been using speedchoice/sprint broadband for over 2 years. Worst case
downloads 50 to 70 K  thats bytes.  On off peak net times/good servers 3meg
bytes max.  also when ftping multiple files, the total through-put just keeps
going up, so I susspect the bottlneck is not onmy local net.  Another courious
thing.  I have 3 ip's a sparc10, a 400mhz amd runninl linux, and a 400 mhz amd
windows 98.  I can download the exact same file from the exact same site on all
three machines simoultaniously with the following rates.

sparc10 varies 600 to 900 Kbytes
linux      varies 400 to 700 Kbytes
win98    pretty steady at 70 Kbytes

he he he what a joke.  windows sucks

even ftp transfers on my lan between the three machines the windows can't get
over 1meg and I get 5+meg between the linux and solaris box.

by the way I pay 59.95 for 3 fixed ip's.

No modem can ever compare to this service IMNSHO.

outages extreemley rare  the earthlink news server is a bit slow,  the news
server requires login and password to use.
both minor nucences to me.

I play half-life quite a bit.  I have been on servers with 40 to 70 ping rate,
but 120 is probably average.  You need to learn which servers work best for
your ip address.