EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff hasn't been shy about pushing for consolidation of the dial-up Internet business.

He may have a chance to jump on an opportunity as early as this week.

Time Warner executives are expected to announce Wednesday they have completed the necessary steps to separate AOL's dial-up access business from its advertising and content business, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. That will make it easier for Time Warner to sell both parts of AOL.

Analysts have named Atlanta-based EarthLink as a favorite to buy AOL. Though Huff has not been that direct, he has said EarthLink plans to grow and has mentioned AOL, United Online and MSN as prime candidates for deals.

"AOL is right now is trying to figure out its options," said Robin Diedrich, an analyst who follows Time Warner and the cable industry for Edward Jones. "Investors are putting pressure on the new CEO (Jeff Bewkes) to do something this year. I think people are expecting one of these things to happen pretty soon."

EarthLink delved into, and eventually abandoned, other ventures outside its traditional dial-up business, including free municipal wireless Internet and a mobile-phone service aimed at teenagers. Huff has said the company is re-narrowing its focus to keeping its long-term customers and — if the deal makes sense for shareholders — buying up subscribers from other dial-up Internet providers such as AOL.

Huff has argued that EarthLink is the best dial-up company to lead industry consolidation but isn't sure how quickly that would happen.

"Over the short term, [dial-up] might be another viable business for another three to five years," said Mike Paxton, an analyst with In-Stat, a technology and communications market research firm based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"I think there are a lot of moving parts that are currently taking place in the industry that we read about everyday in the newspaper," he said during the company's second-quarter earnings call last Tuesday. "We've sort of been waiting on some of those things to play themselves out."

Officials from EarthLink and Time Warner declined comment Monday.

"Consolidating the premium dial-up access segment, potentially by acquiring AOL's sub base, is still the preferred and most likely outcome in our view," Youssef Squali, technology and Internet analyst for Jefferies & Co., wrote in a research note about EarthLink last week.

In other company news, one of EarthLink's founders and longtime board member Sky Dayton will retire from the board in October, EarthLink said Monday. In a statement, Dayton said he was time to "return full-time to my entrepreneurial roots."

Dayton's departure from the board is the third in as many weeks. Two members — Robert Kavner and William Harris Jr. — retired July 25.

Telecom industry veteran M. Wayne Wisehart is the newest board member. Wisehart has been either chief financial officer or CEO of a number of phone, wireless or Internet businesses that eventually were bought by larger companies, giving him plenty of experience in navigating an acquisition.