There is less line noise lately. The grey screen hasn't come back. I have a usb to serial adapter and a hardware serial Hayes Accura, as well as a usb Zoom V.90 All had major problems with the line noise. The Hayes was the most stable. Oddly enough, the pc I used to have had a serial software USR modem that didnt care at all, no matter how bad the line got.
There is a new fiber optic line going under the road about 1/2 mile from here, so maybe they have been rerouting traffic to enable the upgrade.
I don't really need dsl speed at home. There are no true discounts for high speed here in south Florida. $21 a month gets unlimited dialup. The low end dsl is about $5 more, until you read the fine print. Going from dial up to dsl "may" require a $200 charge for the modem and a line upgrade. Since I'm only using 2 wires now, a service tech will have to come out to add two more.
If I need to d/l something large, I have two places I can go nearby for that. I just d/l'ed Open Office 2.0 for Mac (130 MB).