* Bob Tanner <tanner at real-time.com> [010930 22:14]: > I really wish the little ISPs could offer service via cable. With Excite at Home > going to AT&T at fire-sales prices, cable modems are going the way of telcos. Excite at Home was majority owned by AT&T anyhow? If it was, there wasn't much anyone else could contribute to the situation that would cause anything else to happen. I'm just hoping it sweetens the deal enough that Cox doesn't buy AT&T. Theres a realy scary empire. At least AT&T/mediaone systems are upgraded. Cox isn't giving a shit about 'digital' because they just want to make the most $$ per analog video user to keep their shareholders happy because they live in regulation/monopoly. I'm decently impressed at what Mediaone/AT&T accomplished so far. I really hope it doesn't get bought out by some backwards thinking company. I'm less worried about AT&T than Qwest or others too. I could see a method for ISP's to provide service, but they wouldn't be allowed to do the hardware and transport side of the deal, just something along the lines vaguely like frame relay for the AT&T side. ISP's would beable to handle from there onward to the internet. Kind of like 'megacentral' where its just a bit of ATM magic. The scary thing is that this might lead to a new league of 'transport serivces' where we dont actually buy voice or internet from our wire provider, but bits and channels, and then buy voice/internet/data/etc from either the same provider or others. Sprint ION originally had that concept (now its a glorafied DSL thing). It would be nice though, especially if you could arrange arbatrary data pipes between points (for money, of course) -- Scott Dier <dieman at ringworld.org> <sdier at debian.org> http://www.ringworld.org/ #linuxos at irc.openprojects.net "History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure." - Justice Thurgood Marshall (1989)