Throughput was originally advertised as equivalent to, and in practice was often somewhat better than, that of a then-standard 28.8 kbit/s telephone modem. In addition, Ricochet could be treated as an "always-on" connection (in the sense that, once connected to the network, it could stay connected even when not in use without tying up scarce resources, unlike a dialup connection), much the way broadband is today. It was also marketed for a flat monthly fee (the original Ricochet service was $29.95 a month, less than the cost of dialup plus a second phone line). As a result, a significant number of users in the Ricochet service area adopted it as their primary home Internet connection.