In a few months, probably around November or December, I will be going to Japan on business for a few months, quite close to where Leif works, actually. He won't BE there when I get there, but perhaps that will give me an excuse to do some sight-seeing while I am there and pay him a visit where ever he DOES end up at. This was part of the reason for my move, as DSL was not available where I lived previously. All that is nice, but the MAIN reason I got DSL, and moved to get it, was for my son. As I said earlier, I will be going to Japan on business, and for various reasons, can't take him along with me.
Phone calls are ok to some extent, but still leave something to be desired.
With a DSL connection where my son is at, even though I am in Japan, I will be able to get streaming video back and forth at an acceptable rate, unlike a cheesy 56K connection, which delivers very halting choppy video in a small window on your screen. Must be self contained, able to restart itself, and handle problems on its own. Even when there are outages, and don't let anyone tell you there aren't, the connection resumes, and your system can just about continue on from there. I know this because I've had that problem, even with different ISPs at different times. DSL can help to alleviate SOME of those problems.