You do not need an active phone line. I had DSL for AT&T for over a year without an active phone line - this is not 2001! AT&T also offers speeds up to 6MB. That's not really slow, dude. You cannot simply discount DSL. Yes, overall, cable provides consistently higher speeds. But it's not like the stone age.
FIOS is out and about here in a large portion of the DC metropolitan area. My brother and I are pretty heavy gamers, download from XBL, download music, etc. I might look into that.
I know the tech doesn't require an active phone line, but they wouldn't budge last time I tried to get dsl without a phone. And this was two years ago. Perhaps I just ran into a shitty CR, but our phone company either pushes really hard for a basic phone line or flat-out requires it.
If you have FIOS I'd definitely jump on that. I will be the first to transfer in Charlotte, our TW HD package is pathetic.