Broadband, Narrow Choices

Broadband Internet access has the potential to turn the current e-commerce trickle into a waterfall and open up new worlds of collaborative education, multimedia entertainment, and interactive communications.

That's no secret to anyone, least of all the phone and cable companies that promise to bring fast Web access to your door. But these industries have had monopolies over their local service areas for decades. Does that mean that soon they'll also monopolize your access to the Net?

In the past several years, a record number of acquisitions and mergers has resulted in a shrinking band of companies that dominate Internet delivery. Telecommunications conglomerates are swallowing cable giants. Long-distance carriers are hooking up with backbone operators and big ISPs. Ma Bell is morphing into Ma Net.

Today's business users and consumers still enjoy low flat-rate pricing and plenty of choices among dial-up Internet access providers. But that could change as the transition toward broadband Net access takes hold. Not only are the costs of implementing fast access higher--and thus out of reach of many small ISPs--but the broadband networks themselves are often off-limits to all but a handful of big cable and telephone companies.

The long-term result? It depends on whom you ask. According to some industry observers and open-access advocates, we can expect spotty reliability, tepid customer service, and higher rates. Others, including the Federal Communications Commission, believe that the intensifying rivalry between cable modem, DSL, and other bandwidth technologies will help jump-start the rollout of broadband access across the country, keeping rates--and service--at least as competitive as they are today.