Customers could get five-fold increase in speed BOSTON — EarthLink will officially launch a “Plus” version of its Internet access software Wednesday which it says will enable dial-up users to surf the Net at up to five-times the standard rate.EarthLink Plus is powered by Propel Software’s Web accelerator, which reduces the size of Web pages and Web elements sent to users’ browsers, allowing users to surf faster, EarthLink said. The proprietary technology works by caching Web pages and elements previously sent to a user’s PC and only sending new elements, and by compressing the information it sends, a Propel spokeswoman said.The new service is priced at $28.95 a month and includes priority technical support, eight e-mail inboxes, and 10M bytes of Web space. EarthLink spokesman Jerry Grasso said that the product targets users who do not want to pay high prices for broadband access, or who live in geographical locations where high speed access is not yet available.“We want to offer a range of products for different kinds of customers,” Grasso said.The Atlanta, Ga. Internet Service provider said that the Web accelerator is compatible with most Microsoft Windows-based PCs, as well as with the Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 browser or higher, Netscape 4.7 or later, and the Opera and Mozilla browsers. Technology Industry