Margaret Madigan is good at solving problems. Living in Massachusetts and working as a marketing manager for a California-based company, she spends much of her day putting out fires, mostly via telephone and e-mail. "My workgroup is on the West Coast, so I need to be flexible," she says. "Sometimes it means staying connected even when I'm at home."

But one problem has stymied Madigan for nearly a year: She is unable to get broadband Internet access at her home. You might guess that Madigan lives in a remote rural enclave. But that's hardly the case--her residence is located in urban Charlestown, Massachusetts, a diverse community of older residents and young professionals that lies in the shadows of Boston's downtown high-rises.

"I check with my phone and cable providers regularly to see if broadband service has become available, and I get nothing but noncommittal answers," says Madigan. "Not only do they not offer it, they won't give me any indication that it's even on the radar screen."

It's not just the fact that she can't get broadband that galls Madigan, it's also her telephone and cable companies' poor explanations and seeming lack of concern. "In a service industry, you need to understand your customers' needs and provide a solution, or at least indicate how you're going to go about servicing their needs. It boggles my mind that neither of these things is being done."

An Impatient Minority

Statistics show that Madigan and others in a similar dilemma are in the minority. According to The Yankee Group, a research and consulting company, either cable or DSL broadband service is available to about 75 percent of U.S. households, and more than 85 percent of households can get the more expensive, slower satellite-based broadband. Of the 10 million households that use some form of broadband, twice as many have cable as DSL. Speeds vary, but downloads often fly along at 500 kilobits per second, close to 10 times the speed of dial-up.

Those figures are comforting, unless you're in one of the many neighborhoods still plodding along at 56 kbps. Lots of the places without broadband are rural locations that might represent a limited market for profit-hungry service providers, but many, like Charlestown, are dynamic urban or suburban neighborhoods that would seem to be perfect markets for broadband. (My own Boston suburb consists of over 150 relatively new homes. More than half my neighbors work for technology companies, yet the entire region remains a broadband wasteland.)

Why the service gaps? In most cases, they exist because a local telephone or cable company either doesn't have the equipment to provide broadband or has outdated equipment. Purchasing, upgrading, or installing equipment requires significant investment. Given the recent economic downturn, most corporations are unwilling to invest in a technology that is still struggling to define standards, much less make a profit. Two major telephone companies, BellSouth and SBC, recently said they would invest less money in expanding DSL this year than last year.

There's also strong disagreement between local telephone and cable companies about whether the playing field is level. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires local phone companies, such as Verizon, to share their networks with independent DSL service providers, whereas the cable broadband industry is under no such obligation. That disparity has led some to allege that local phone companies, the Baby Bells, are dragging their feet in establishing DSL networks. According to Link Hoewing, assistant vice president of Internet and technology policy at Verizon, "[Deregulation] policies were designed for the telephone market, not broadband. We believe these policies undermine deployment and restrict the investment necessary for the broadband industry to reach its full capability."

The Broadband Lobby

Broadband has a new, powerful ally on Capitol Hill. Technology lobbying group TechNet--which, not surprisingly, is headed by honchos from such companies as 3Com, Cisco, and Microsoft--is pressuring government leaders to loosen telecommunications industry regulations and establish tax breaks to spur deployment and consumer demand. The key, according to TechNet, is to attract consumers by providing a combination of affordable access and compelling content.

Michael Goodman, a senior analyst at The Yankee Group, is blunt about TechNet's initiative. "It's completely self-serving. It's a proposal created by people who want to sell more switchers and routers." But he agrees that producing content that depends on high-speed connections--high-quality streaming video or audio, or glitzy animations--is essential. "Let's face it, nobody is going to pay $50 a month so they can download Yahoo faster."

What does this mean for consumers who just want a faster connection? In the short term, companies may not rush to help. "It doesn't make sense to force broadband deployment where it's not going to be profitable," Goodman says.

The bottom line: If you can't get cable or DSL service now, it will almost certainly become available in the future (but just try and get a service provider to give you a specific time frame). But if you can't bear to listen to the screech of your dial-up modem any longer, look into satellite or the more promising fixed-wireless technology. Fixed wireless, which requires installation of a rooftop antenna, costs about the same as satellite and works similarly except that it communicates with a local transmitter tower instead of a satellite. Under perfect conditions, it can achieve speeds far better than DSL, cable, or satellite, but it can be slowed by weather and an overload of users. Its availability is limited and will probably remain so until the technology matures. (See Alternatives: Tuning In on Wireless Broadband for more information on fixed wireless.)

In the meantime, contact your cable and telephone companies to find out what's holding up deployment. Tell them in writing that you'll switch ISPs to get broadband. Ask your neighbors to join in. Some providers send e-mail to keep customers informed about service changes; consider signing up at the providers' Web sites. Visit sites such as www.technet.org, thelist.internet.com, www.dslreports.com, and www.isp-planet.com to keep up with the latest industry developments.

If your town is a dial-up ghetto, you'll likely have to wait a while for broadband. But look at the bright side: If using dial-up teaches us anything, it's patience.