EarthLink to expand with Best Buy

EarthLink on Thursday will announce plans to begin promoting its narrowband Internet service in 550 stores in Best Buy's retail chain. The deal expands on an agreement between the companies struck in November for EarthLink to promote its broadband service in 400 Best Buy stores.

EarthLink, the nation's second largest ISP, has been trying to boost subscriptions in the face of a saturating market for dial-up Internet access. On Monday, the company introduced a faster narrowband product for $28.95, which lets pages load five times faster than regular connections. However, the product has no effect on downloading files or e-mail.