I’d be keen to hear some more data on this one- SketchUp Free does require an active route to the internet to operate, but it actually uses very little bandwidth. Once your browser has downloaded and chached the (very small) executable, you really only have to access the internet to open or save your models. Services like 3D Warehouse and Add Location have always required an active connection to the internet, so nothing has changed there.
If you have sufficient bandwidth to access to this user forum, you should have sufficient bandwidth to run SketchUp Free.