How reliable is the USB modem?

I want to buy a Macbook Pro this fall (i'm waiting to see if any upgrades are announced at the WWDC). There is NO high speed internet available where I live, so I am forced to use the modem. I have an old ibook with a built in modem that is 100% reliable, but my parents have an iMac G5 with a USB modem that is absolutely terrible. The USB modem can't seem to connect faster than 28800, it disconnects after about 50 seconds of use, it disconnects when a music CD is placed in the drive and sometimes just disconnects for no reason at all.
My question is, is this a problem with just the iMac/USB modem or is this a problem with the USB modem? I'm considering just buying an Apple Extreme Base Station and using it's modem rather than buying a USB modem.
Can someone here tell me the quality of the USB modem when connected to the macbook pro?
Thanks,
Eric

I'd say, depending on how much mobility you need, that you would be better off with a wireless router which supports dial up.
That way the router would be able to connect to the internet vi dial up and you could connect to the router wirelessly. When broadband or dsl arrives, you could use the same router. Might not be easy to find, you basically need a wireless router that supports dial-up as backup.
Only disadvantage is that this is not something you could carry around, but very few people carry modems around.
You can do it by having a dial up modem with ethernet output which you then connect to a wireless router. If you already have a dial up modem with ethernet output then you can plug that into a wireless router for less than the Apple modem would cost.
Best of luck
PS - You might want to look for an early Apple base station - 802.11b - it will way outpace your connection speed and will be much cheaper.

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