On 28 Dec 2003, at 05:52, Michael Hallager wrote:
That is so right. Apart from us very-minority nerdy type, your average Joe Bloggs dosn't give a toss about broadband.
Another Canadian anecdote for your amusement. My mother-in-law used to use a modem to read her mail, but she runs a bed and breakfast, and she was missing too many bookings because her phone was tied up. She already had cable tv (everybody here already has cable tv, if it's available, in the same way that they have access to the municipal sewer, if it's available). A cable modem and cable internet service cost about $40/month with no installation when she first got it about five years ago; a second phone line and a dial internet package would cost nearer $60/month with an installation fee for the phone line. The modem gave her something approaching 56k; the cable modem gives her something approaching 2M. She still mainly only uses her computer to check mail (and play solitaire :-) but she's clear on the fact that the cable modem is better than a modem. I very much doubt that she'd ever go back, even if it's just because the cable modem is always on. I still think getting affordable and reliable services offered over the legacy copper plant is an important step in creating a market for new and better broadband access (and based on performance so far, I don't see how or why cheap and reliable broadband services would appear over telecom copper without some low (iso) level of competition). Joe