Some of the guys had an argument going the other day that had to do with the elements necessary for music and videos to be widely available for streaming across the internet. One of the elements missing, according to one of the posters, was that DSL fast access is not widely availble. Well, I was in my Charter Communications office here in Newport, OR, yesterday and found out that I'm going to be able to get fast internet access from them in November of this year. Now this is a big deal! I'm out in the sticks and I'm going to get a fast internet connection via my cable TV line very soon. Paul Allen bought these little companies here in Oregon and is he ever raising services and prices! My 'extended basic' cable connection used to cost about $18 per month, it's now almost $33; in November it will go to $36 and if I sign up for the fast access to the internet, it will cost another $42 per month (I currently use EarthLink at $22 per month). For this "enhanced" service I'll pay $75 per month vs. the $55 I'm paying now. That is truly a big jump in percentage of increase. Everyone in the US has phone now--they are almost universal, but the costs of high speed internet connections, at least out here in the sticks, is probably cost prohibitive when added to the costs of having good hardware and software that continually needs to be upgraded for many people here in Newport. Does anyone have any thoughts on this computer have nots/computer haves divide?
AI
