Mar. 1--People are looking for ways to cut nonessential expenses out of their monthly budgets.

That means the cable bill and restaurant tabs may be getting a hard look. But United Online, the Woodland Hills company behind low-cost dial-up Internet access, has noticed something unexpected -- people leaving speedy broadband to return to dial-up.

The company won't release the numbers of people making the switch, but Chief Executive Mark Goldston said a "meaningful percentage" are coming from broadband. He credits that to the bad economy and United Online's new marketing message.

The company has based an ad campaign on weighing speed against savings. An ad for NetZero, one of the company's Internet services, notes users could save almost $300 a year per household by moving to dial-up. NetZero's platinum Internet service is being promoted now for $6.95 a month for a year, a discount of $3 per month.

Of course, it could be argued -- and has been on blogs since the ad started airing -- that people can stick with a broadband connection and get the best deal by going with bundled packages.

Keeping the TV, phone and Internet all on one discounted bill makes more sense for some than paying less for Internet and then having to pay separately for the other two parts of that trifecta.

They further note that people going with dial-up would have to pay more for entertainment they could no longer access online because of the slower speeds.

Goldston said he's not telling anyone they should give up broadband, but if it comes down to a decision to reduce costs at home, switching to dial-up may be a solution.

"A lot of people out there have never downloaded a song, never downloaded a video and never will," he said. "For those people who need to save money, they can use dial-up."

Only 10 percent of Americans are using dial-up, according to a 2008 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage of broadband users rose from 47 percent in 2007 to 55 percent in 2008.

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, once the king of dial-up with almost 27 million U.S. subscribers at its peak, decided long ago to prop itself up on advertising revenue. Now AOL, whose Internet subscribers are still mainly dial-up customers, counts 6.9 million users.

People aren't so willing to give up their Internet once they start doing more with it.

Priorities are shifting over what's important, said John Horrigan, associate director for research with the Pew Internet Project.