I’d love to have Tom and Mary Evslins next door not just because they’re as incredibly nice as they are incredibly smart and interesting but because they also struck a blow for communications freedom in their Vermont neighborhood, installing wireless internet access on their roof to serve the neighbors.
I believe that wireless access will go a long way toward freeing us from the telco-cableco duopoly and assuring that we Americans (and others) have the Internet capacity we need both for entertainment and to keep from getting competitively flattened in a flattening world. An unintended consequence of the abuse of duopoly power by telcos and cablecos will be the deployment of various wireless technologies even in places where they are NOT the best technical or economic solution.
I’d like to see step-by-step advice for setting up what I’ll call a NISP (neighborhood ISP). I have Cablevision bandwidth now. Verizon has been quietly installing new boxes in the area for fibre to the house (though I fear they’ll bypass me with this as they did with DSL) and I lust for the speed but fear the restrictions, considering that Verizon has been threatening to charge both ends of the wire. But the solution to a monopoly or duopoly is competition. So bring on powerline access. Bring on NISPs or help me bring them on. Or, Tom and Mary, buy the nice house across the street.
