Broadband use is increasing, and dial-up is declining. This is a dramatic change of course and it has far-reaching implications.
Mid-sized ISP’s will have to become part of a larger enterprise or go out of business. We face the prospectedof AOL and Microsoft increasing their hold on the dial-up market. The market should support a few smaller local boutique ISP’s, but it’s not going to be a very good living for anyone, even living under AOL’s rather tall price umbrella.
If you don’t like AOL and Microsoft dominating the access business, don’t worry–dial-up is dying. But you’re not going to like the alternative. The broadband business is much more concentrated than dial-up. The big players your “local” telco (SBC, Verizon, etc) or your “local” cable company (Comcast or AOL Time Warner Cable (which is a very different company from the AOL division of the same corporation)) whose stupidity, bullying, and political clout make AOL and Microsoft seem positively geeky.