So another, more expensive means of surfing the web has been introduced. Very nice, for those who can and want to afford it.

I spend more time reading and sending email on the 'net than anything else. When I started using the internet in the early '90s, I connected using a 2400 baud modem, and when I logged on, I saw a c shell prompt on my screen. I could use pine to read and send email, and it filled my screen faster than I could read it. Now I have a cable modem, and my email is much slower, simply because I have to wait for pesky advertisements to load.

People are paying more and more for their access to the internet largely to be able to read advertisements which don't interest them, and to receive huge quantities of spam email. What's wrong with this picture?

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Extra speed for home workers might be very useful, better/faster access might encourage more homeworking, less commuting, less fuel consumption and less polution!

Sounds like a very good idea to me!

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If you are unfortunate enough to live where the 'New' AT&T (Really SBC) is your service provider, you can kiss it goodbye. The poster child of monopoly and poor service (SBC/AT&T) has decided that running fiber to the neighborhood and running the rest on good old cheap copper is good enough for you.

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I'm sure I'll never get it. I'm only allowed less and less by the cable monopolies that strangle me for my access to the Net (which is where I work).

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As someone who works in the industry and has spent many years lobbying for greater broadband access in my state, I can tell you for a fact that unless you are lucky enough to live in a very wealthy area that is having FiOS installed right now, it is going to take realistic government regulation to force the providers like Verizon to replace the old "copper" (a lot is still the even older lead) wires with fiber. Otherwise they will never make the investment.

In fact this is the reason that Verizon tried to sell its upstate NY access lines a few years back and is selling its access lines in a few New England states. Companies like Verizon knows that it’s only a matter of time before the people insist that government steps in and forces the providers to again give good quality service to all of their customers instead of just the wealthy ones. So they figure the best thing to do now is get rid of the "undesirable" areas by selling them off, that way when the government finally does its job for the people it will be some other company that’s forced to make the investment in fiber not Verizon. While in the meantime they make money hand-over-fist from the "desirable" customers.

This is the real danger of deregulating public service providers like phone companies. By removing the requirements that these service providers treat customers in areas that have higher operational costs the same as those in areas with low operational costs these companies are choosing not to provide quality service to people in the high cost areas.

When companies are allowed to choose their customers it changes the competition dynamic, no longer do companies have to strive to provide a quality product in order to compete with other companies, now the consumers have to compete with each other to convince the companies to provide any service or product much less a quality one. The end result is higher prices and lower quality.

Not surprisingly the companies like Verizon are OK with this, and they spend a lot of money trying to convince your elected officials that you are OK with this as well. If you are not then now is the time to speak out. Contact your states Public Service or Public Utilities Commission since they will make the decisions, also contact your state Governor since they appoint the members of the PSC or PUC, finally contact your state legislators since they control the funding for, and may have input on appointments to the PSC or PUC.

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Same old story; same old song. I began to notice fiber optic cables being laid underground in the vicinity of Klamath Falls, Or. about three years ago. By a year ago, the F.O. cables were in the ground even in the most remote parts of the state. That means that F.O. service has been available for at least that long. The reason it isn't is that the telecommunications companies are waiting to be able to charge many times what the same 10X faster than cable service costs in Japan, for instance, even though THEIR costs will be minimal compared to operating and maintaining copper wire service. We invent all the gee-wizz technology here in the USA, but usually are the last to get it into the market, until profits can be maximized. Another example of this is the Magnetic Levitation (or MAGLEV) Train, invented by us, then ignored, and being developed by Germany and Japan. Corporate America is not our friend, make no mistake about that.

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It's naive to believe that a new technology will yield more freedom.

Net Neutraility is hotly contested today, a tug of war for control between the FCC, and corporations, and activists.

Read more about efforts to Save the Internet.

Avoid blind faith in a free market heavily owned by a few people.

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