Sorry to be a pain, but if you had read the previous page about what types of connections I offer, you wouldn't need to be reading this.
If you are really interested in communications, and are on a tight budget, then by all means pick up a free UNIX version (Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD or one of the others). Once you have the system up and running, learn how to configure a modem on it. After that is done, it is easy to set up a uucp link here, and you will have mail & news access, just like a real system. The only thing you won't be able to do is surf the web, and ftp real time. You can then just pay for the things you want, and not worry about mail & news.
By setting up your own system, you will learn how the various communications protocols work. This will help you understand how the 'Internet' works.