While companies are gearing up to provide the latest and greatest high speed content, dial-up users are still migrating to broadband for more practical reasons. As companies hover like hawks over the promise of a new generation of services (and profits) delivered via high bandwidth pipes, the primary allure of broadband remains the technology's simpler benefits.

According to a recent survey conducted by Strategy Analytics, most dial-up users migrate primarily to be rid of the additional phone line, to have an "always on-line connection" and to do what they already do with dial-up; only faster. Many aren't particularly enticed by the promise of video and music content, despite a recent aggressive push by several companies into the market.

But if you're on dial-up, how would you know what you're missing?

While this CNet article suggests the survey findings "fly in the face" of recent business predictions of booming demand for high-speed content, in reality businesses only recently decided the industry had hit a saturation point where selling such services could actually become profitable. Other than a flurry of video content and a smattering of music services, companies really haven't been offering content that is particularly compelling or original.

The survey also found that among the 525 customers questioned, many of the companies trying the hardest to become monsters of broadband content are faring the poorest in terms of brand allure. Companies like Real Networks and AOL have been working tirelessly on their reputations, yet still managed to score considerably lower than other big name providers in terms of brand name impact.

This comes after a year in which AOL-Time Warner awoke from a slumber and declared it would create a walled in content "Garden of Eden", setting it apart as a broadband monster in terms of information and entertainment. Chief Executive Jonathan Miller unveiled the company's content plans last December, and has since at least laid the ground work for the company's role as a broadband content superhero.

Real Networks has been perhaps the most aggressive; striking video deals across the web with everyone from the Weather Channel to Major League Baseball, and acquiring music delivery service Listen.com in a $36 million deal. While AOL hopes to be the content garden of eden, Real Networks hopes to be the taxi driver that takes you there.

Over the next few years, the successes and failures of the broadband content industry will become clear. For the time being, companies are simply getting their footholds on rocky soil; staking their respective flags on various high-speed hilltops for the sake of name recognition before the coming flood. Still, if the survey can be believed, many users aren't moved by the razzle dazzle, and are simply happy to be checking their e-mail without drumming their fingers.