As a general statement, any vendor that plans on offering HSHF services in the near term will be required to make some capital investment, if not already done so, in their core network to accommodate the additional load that must result. The driving strategic incentive and economic justification for making this investment is not the capability of offering HSHF services, but the ability to continue to effectively compete in their core business. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires that local telephone companies allow competitors access to their networks on reasonable terms as well as offering unbundled network functions. The other three industries are not required under this act to open their network infrastructures to competing services so they can and do act as barriers to competition by the telephone company. Cable companies rarely have that amount of coverage in their territory.
Wireless communications are sensitive to terrain, so coverage is highly dependent on geography.
The technology path to HSHF network services is more evolutionary than revolutionary. While technology can be deployed today that delivers a significant increase in performance over 28.8kbs modems, at present, there is no technology is available on the mass market that can deliver 10 Mbs. As such, policy makers must pay attention to the important trends shown by the evolution of commercial product offerings. Customers expect flat rate pricing even though many ISPs are struggling to devise and implement usage based strategies that won't cause customers to rebel and leave. Some cable companies require customers to purchase basic cable TV service to be eligible to purchase the HSHF service, creating an additional cost barrier for customers.