Summary: broadband.
Details:
I, being a geek, wanted broadband 8 years ago. Couldn't justify the cost to my then-accountant now wife. Things started falling into place slowly after we were married, however.
We have family living all over the country, so our phone bill was very high. We discussed cell phones, but were never happy with the contracts and stipulations. Finally AT&T offered a plan where you pay about $70 and get all the long-distance included. We signed up and were happy. We also were using NetZero for ten hours per month of online time. Yes, I wanted more, but again I couldn't justify the expense.
Then one day, a brochure arrived in the mail detailing AT&T's "CallVantage" VOIP service. The introductory rate was $20/mo. After the first three months it went up to $35/mo. Well, RoadRunner was running an introductory rate of $22/mo. After the first six months it went up to $45/mo. or something like that. Well, I did the math -- and came up ten dollars short. Then someone told me about RoadRunner Lite (384kbps) for only $25/mo. Hey, $35+$25=$60! We're paying less than what our previous long-distance bill was, and getting high-speed internet to boot!
I finally justified it. Now, we're enjoying the best of both worlds. The only time I ever notice the decreased bandwidth is when I download large files. Other than that, it's no problem!
PS - I've had very few service problems with RoadRunner. Billiing, now that's a different story for a different day!