Joi Internet was a dial-up

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

based in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. Joi Internet was a subsidiary of Hawk Communications (as were Access4Less and Access-4-Free). Joi Internet provided low-cost basic and accelerated dial-up Internet access, up to five POP3 e-mail addresses, free 24-hour

technical support Technical support (abbreviated as tech support) is a call centre type customer service provided by companies to advise and assist registered users with issues concerning their technical products. Traditionally done on the phone, technical suppor ...

by telephone or e-mail, and

newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct ...

access. Its accelerated dial-up made use of

caching In computing, a cache ( ) is a hardware or software component that stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster; the data stored in a cache might be the result of an earlier computation or a copy of data stored elsewher ...

and compression, which allowed a user on a dial-up connection to surf quicker. It required installation of Joi's rebranded Propel Internet Accelerator. Joi Internet's parent company was sued by BellSouth Corporation in February 2004 on the basis of

false advertising False advertising is defined as the act of publishing, transmitting, or otherwise publicly circulating an advertisement containing a false claim, or statement, made intentionally (or recklessly) to promote the sale of property, goods, or servic ...

due to the claim that their accelerated dial-up was as fast as DSL. (CA No. 1:04-CV-0280-MHS, N.D. Ga.) BellSouth was awarded a preliminary injunction and an award of damages

Hawk Communications sold its dial-up services to

EarthLink EarthLink is an American Internet service provider. It went public on NASDAQ in January 1997. Much of the company's growth was via acquisition; by 2000, ''The New York Times'' described Earthlink as the "second largest Internet service provider ...

(also of Atlanta, Georgia) in April 2005.

Sources

BellSouth sues Joi Internet for false advertising
Atlanta Business Chronicle, 13 February 2004, Justin Rubner

Atlanta Business Chronicle, 14 April 2004

Atlanta Business Chronicle, 20 April 2005 Internet service providers of the United States Companies based in Atlanta