Before I switched to cable (1 1/2 years now) I had been using an ISP called GTC Internet. Back then it was $9.95 per month -- don't know what it is now. I used their service unmercilessly. In all that time, I had one minor outage, I called, their technical support was excellent, and they were already on top of the problem, which was a local modem bank.

They have nodes (shared modem banks) in most major/medium sized and some even small cities, I never got a "busy". If you're still looking, you might want to check them out.

http://www.gtcinternet.com