Free the Internet! — Open Access, Levelling the Playing Field #5
By Dave Olson
[Originally published in Menu Magazine from Olympia, Washington, circa 1999]
There are many ways for you to get an Internet connection to your home, office or wherever. What you likely don’t realize is the morass of politics, tariffs and such-nense that goes on behind the scenes in order to provide a high-speed digital data link to your house.
Indeed, it is often a double-edged sword as laws that were made to de-construct Telco monopolies often hinder the progress of open-access. The accepted standards aren’t necessarily driven by the best technology and consumer- demand but rather by what the Telcos lobby for and decide to release (often based on the benefit to the bottom line).
As is the normal custom in this column, we will glance into the past somewhat to get a sense of how we got where we are now.