According to Forrester Research, "Households that own a laptop computer and a home network are on the frontier of online activities. These advanced consumers spend twice as much time online as all dial-up households, are three times more likely than broadband-only households to go online in the living room, and watch an hour and a half less TV per week than the average household. With this group swelling from 4 million to 30 million households in the next five years, the cumulative effect on shopping, media consumption, and services will be dramatic."
Try to imagine this scenario, that General Motors and Ford were given exclusive franchises to build America's interstate highway system, and also all the highways that connect local communities. Now imagine that, based upon a financial crisis, these troubled companies decided to convert all "their" local arteries into toll-roads -- they then use incremental toll fees to severely limit all travel to and from small businesses. Why? This handicapping process reduced the need to invest in building better new roads, or repairing the dilapidated ones. But, wouldn't that short-sighted decision have a detrimental impact on the overall national economy? It's a moot point -- pure fantasy -- you say. The U.S. political leadership would never knowingly risk the nation's social and economic future on the financial viability of a restrictive duopoly. Or, would they? The 21st century Global Networked Economy travels across essential broadband infrastructure. The forced intro...