at least 2 gigabytes should be the definate minimum to be classed as broadband...
256kb is even useless if ya cant "Stretch" your arms for more than 60mins.
Once upon a time, "Broadband" was rigidly defined as a data stream greater than 2MB/S. But that was before the media & marketing people got involved & mangled it into a marketing term instead of technical one.
Can live with a bottom-end plan of low monthly volume being available to those who want it. Know a few people who have them & have no trouble staying under their cap. Mostly older folks who do a small amount of email & browsing per month, update their virus definitions religiously once a year whether they need it or not. And never download updates to OS or other programs... (it ain't broken, don't play with it.)
It's the adverts which bundle those low volume plans with high volume applications like VoIP which are irresponsible, borderline criminal in my view.
cheers