Microsoft's Internet service is shifting marketing efforts toward broadband and away from dial-up:

After launching a $300 million marketing campaign last year to promote its Internet service and take market share from AOL, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., MSN is shifting its focus to the fast-growing high-speed, or broadband, market.

...."We knew broadband eventually was going to make its way into broader acceptance but, frankly, we didn't know when that was going to happen. We think it's happening now," MSN marketing director Bob Visse said in an interview.

High-speed connections are essential to Internet distribution of music, video and other entertainment. About 16 million U.S. homes had broadband in 2002, up from 10 million a year earlier, according to research firm IDC.

There were 40.7 million dial-up Internet users in 2002. [Reuters]

It's kind of simple: if you're going to use the Internet - and this is becoming a virtual necessity of modern life - then the only convenient way to go is broadband. If you want to avail yourself of the Internet's entertainment capabilities, then broadband is mandatory. I think you'll see the dial-up-to-broadband ratio reverse itself within two years.