The new fast modems and the new services that will be engendered by them
might be great ideas on which to connect blind computer users in your
community.  One could organize folks for support, demonstrations, mutual
aid, group learning, and advocacy around this new technology.  the
article below describes this coming trend that will likely come to your
block in a few years.

kelly


   Newsweek, November 23, 1998


   Fast Lane on the Infobahn

   Two routes: the phone companies or the cable guy.

   By Peter McGrath


   When the poet Longfellow said that all things come to those who wait,
   he was doubtless thinking of the World Wide Web. Waiting is a central
   feature of the Web experience. The colorful moving graphics, the sound
   bites and video clips--all the multimedia elements that make the Web a
   unique publishing environment--also make it frustrating for most home
   users. This is particularly true for people accustomed to the high
   speeds of office networks. Retrieving the USA Today home page, for
   example, can take more than a minute via dial-up modem, compared with
   about five seconds with a T-1 connection at work. "There used to be
   sites we'd never visit because it took so long to access them," says
   Richard Stickel of Norcross, Ga. "And downloading files was not
   something we'd do unless we wanted a headache."

   But Stickel is now a happy man. A year ago he agreed to take part in a
   test of Express, a cable-modem service run by MediaOne. Two cable
   technicians came to his house, drilled a hole in the outer wall and
   ran a length of coaxial cable from under the street to a special modem
   attached to his personal computer. Within two hours, he was connected
   to the Internet at about 50 times the speed of his old 33.6
   kilobit-per-second (Kbps) conventional modem. Now, even video-game
   downloads take only a few seconds. "It's like racing a Ferrari while
   everyone else is driving a Volkswagen," Stickel says. "Being a test
   dummy was a smart move."

   High-speed Internet access for the home has arrived. The numbers are
   still small. So far, about 135,000 households have signed up for the
   cable- modem service now offered jointly by MediaOne and Time Warner
   Cable under the name of Roadrunner. The @Home Network, which markets
   cable-modem technology through affiliated cable carriers like Tele-
   Communications Inc. (TCI) and Cox, had 210,000 customers as of Sept.
   30. All together, cable-modem providers are expected to have perhaps
   600,000 subscribers by the year-end, according to Thomas A. Jermoluk,
   the CEO of @Home.

   At the same time, telephone companies are finally beginning to get
   serious about so-called broadband services. After a prolonged and
   unsatisfying flirtation with a system called ISDN (Integrated Services
   Digital Network), the regional Bells and their smaller local
   competitors are turning to Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies,
   which can deliver Internet access to the home at T-1 speeds or better.
   The telcos do so without enthusiasm: selling T-1 lines to companies at
   $1,000 per month is a better business than selling DSL to residential
   customers for a tenth of that price. But they figure they'd rather
   pre-empt themselves than let cable companies pre-empt them.

   Currently, few people have the luxury of choosing between cable modems
   and DSL. The two compete directly in only a few markets, such as parts
   of the San Francisco Bay Area. But that will change over the next few
   years, especially once a new and less cumbersome DSL technology called
   G.lite becomes an industry standard next June. G.lite won't offer as
   much speed as other versions of DSL technology; but at the same time,
   it won't be as hard to install, and won't cost as much.

   As the competition heats up, which will you want?

   In the short term, most people will find cable modems the technology
   of choice, if only because of their greater availability. With its
   proposed $32 billion acquisition of TCI, the long-distance giant ATT
   is making a big bet that cable modems are the future of high-speed
   Internet access. Already, nearly 20 million households are in
   cable-served neighborhoods upgraded with the optical fiber required
   for cable modems. The system has other advantages, too, mainly the
   ability to deliver higher speeds for less money. There is a downside:
   cable-modem customers share connections with every other cable-modem
   customer in their neighborhood. When everyone wants access, download
   speeds go down. For information about service where you live, call
   your local cable company. Note: you don't have to subscribe to cable
   TV to get a cable modem.

   DSL holds attractions, too. By piggybacking on existing telephone
   wires, it will in the end be nearly ubiquitous. Even more important,
   DSL connections are reliable; the Bells may lack daring, but they
   engineer their networks for stability, something cable companies can't
   always say for themselves. There is also a security issue: since cable
   technology treats neighborhoods like local-area networks, the people
   next door have potential access to your computer. DSL connections are
   what the telecoms world calls "dedicated"--once you've made the
   connection, nobody else can share it. To learn more about the
   timetable for DSL service in your area, call the phone company. Don't
   forget to look into service from competitive local carriers, too. The
   price you pay will probably vary according to the speed of the
   connection you specify, typically about $120 a month for a T-1 speed
   of 1.5 mega-bits per second.

   Finally, ask yourself whether you really want high-speed access.
   There's room for skepticism. People who think that the Web should
   simulate television will certainly want all the bandwidth they can
   afford. And they'll be urged on by companies like Intel and Microsoft,
   whose ability to market new products will depend in large part on
   bandwidth hunger. Web publishers will be on the bandwagon, too, if
   only because high-speed connections will allow them to give
   advertisers a media-rich environment.

   But if your main use of the Web is for e-mail and to consult
   text-driven services like stock-market information, you may find
   old-fashioned dial-up (preferably on a second phone line dedicated to
   computer use) all the speed you need, at least until prices come down.
   And remember this: there's an iron law of highway planning that says
   traffic increases to fill the amount of road available. The same is
   true of the Internet. The more bandwidth there is, the more it will be
   gobbled up by flashier Web sites and bulkier downloads. And the
   waiting game will begin again.

   With Arlyn Tobias Gajilan in Atlanta


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