I live in an area that is NOT very far along in terms of technology. (Cable came this month:D)

There are, I think, 3 local ISPs. They all provide dialup service and hosting.

Though I would like to support local business (especially because of the recent "hard times"), I am somewhat reluctant to have my site hosted at one of these local ISPs. This is mainly because of:
A. the price
B. If cable just came this month, what kind of connection are they on
C. The hosting facilities leave a lot to be desired. (think basement or back room.

Do any of you have experience with local providers.

I suppose i could go around town to the ISPs and talk to them, but I would feel like quite as ass, asking for reasons why i should host with them rather than with an established datacenter.

thanks for any insight :)

I worked for a local provider and here is what I can tell you about my experience there:

Price: Much higher for what you get. Example: $25 gets you basic Unix/NT hosting, no bells and whistles, 1 email account, 25mb space, bandwidth wasn't really monitored

Connection: If it's a legitimate ISP, chances are it's gonna be a decent connection. The company I worked for primarily provided dial-up. They had 4 T1s dedicated to dialup and 3 for hosting/office.

Location: Hosting customers were in a locked room with.... make-do racks and VEEEEEEERY expensive power backup. The building was air conditioned, and the server room was about 2 doors down from all of the execs as well as the techs.

Basically, if you were looking for a ton of options, it was not the way to go, but for personal sites and large businesses, it was perfect. The SUPPORT was what people paid for.