I’m not as optomistic as engel after reading Cringely’s Don’t Touch That Dial piece. Regardless of the connection to local and network TV the concept of everyone haveing high speed acccess to the internet is a good thing.
The problem is who will run it and what type of control will they exert over content? I don’t trust the national network TV execs. I do think that they are the players that will push for broadband not just for internet content, if they don’t they will go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. Just look at technology like TiVo, buypass the scheduled program times and buypass the comercials. Look at what great broadcasting the networks have given us, Friends, Perfect, Party of Five, etc. Do you want them feeding your internet content?
“If the station owners are smart, that’s what they will do, subvert I-Beam by creating something even better. Let the best technology win. And that would be good for us all.” Cringely
Not saying that the local affilates are any better but there are more of them, more potential for competition. In order for broadband in every home, and all communications traveling over the same pipe, the system will have to follow the basic principals of the internet, distributed and decentralized. Otherwise what we get will be usless.