If the trends don't change, these communities will miss out on developing high-speed home uses, such as telemedicine, distance learning and telecommuting. And economic development will suffer. It's a disinvestment. It puts the community further behind the curve. Others fear the same thing.
Most businesses crave new services offered by phone and cable companies.
That's much more attractive than today's pricey T-1 lines, or ISDN lines, which are only twice as fast as conventional phone modems. DSL services typically range from 640,000 bits per second to 1.5 million. That's the minimum needed for even basic, herky-jerky video. They transmit data via TV wires using special cable modems. Speeds go from 6 million to 10 million bits per second, but can slow dramatically if too many neighboring subscribers use the service at the same time.