Hi sydmichel,
I don't think an update by post, on a CDROM or DVD is going to happen.
Dial-up connections are a bit of a dying breed, so downloads are the way it's normally done anyway, and have been for quite some time. Of course games and patches get bigger, but connections also get faster and faster. People that are still on 56k are rare I think. At least in Holland, it's probably not even possible to still have it. They discontinued these some time ago, with most providers I have come across. Of course some countries might be 'behind the times' a bit.. so that's apples and oranges, perhaps.. granted.
But, these patches won't be as large as the game itself, so it should not take THAT long.
And, you can ofcouse always use download accelerators, like getright, to make sure a disconnection does not make you start from scratch, but allows you to continue where it left off. Also it can make use of several mirrors at once, speeding up the process aswell.
If your connection is a bit dodgy or not too fast, then I'd advice you take a look at one of those. I personally use getright, when it's needed. It works like a charm!
http://getright.com/ (it's payware, but you can try it out first, and as such, use it for this patch.)
Regards,
Fred