WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Dial-up Internet connections are expected to speed up -- slightly -- as U.S. regulators reconsider an outdated modem restriction on telephone networks.

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday proposed changing its rules so that digital 56 kilobit-a-second modems -- used by Internet service providers to transmit data to consumers -- are permitted to operate at their maximum speed.

Current rules prevent these modems from operating at speeds higher than 53 kilobits per second.

The rules, adopted in 1976, were designed to prevent interference to people's telephone conversations.

But technological improvements have made the modern-day phone system less susceptible to signal interference. So the current power limits on modems are no longer needed, FCC officials said.

"The proposed change is a common sense move to speed up Internet access for consumers. And it is just a small part of the FCC's ongoing efforts to end the World Wide Wait" on the Internet, FCC Chairman Bill Kennard said.

Still, the FCC acknowledged that the change, if implemented, would be only a minor improvement.

That's because these modems sometimes operate at much lower rates -- in the high 40 kilobits-per-second range -- because of technical limitations of the networks they run on, officials said.

But the change will allow modem vendors to delete at least some of the fine print they include at the bottom of every advertisement for 56K modems warning of the current 53,000 speed limit.

The sending speed of ordinary modems remains topped out at 33,600 kilobits per second.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.