Cable modem: this is why AOL bought Time Warner, folks. Seems they’ve managed to reverse-engineer the coaxial connection that was designed to deliver 60-75 TV channels into a two-way network for Internet access. The big drawback is something called latency: if everyone in your building or on your block logs onto the Internet through his cable modem at the same time, the speed of all those connections degrades dramatically. Which basically sucks. But AT&T bought a whole mess of cable companies last year specifically to own a piece of this market, and not incidentally use that same coaxial connection to deliver local phone service (which won’t matter in about 10 seconds when all voice data is pumped as bits through the Internet).

Satellite: earlier this year, media baron Rupert Murdoch almost made a bid for General Motors, not because he wanted to make sure he had a plentiful supply of pink Corvettes, but to get his hands on Hughes, the satellite division that runs DirecTV. While satellite Internet access sounds great, there’s just one teensy little problem...while it’s easy to receive signals - just point the dish south - it’s not easy sending signals back to the bird from your rooftop. So here’s another chance to talk about latency, only this time, it’s the delay between when you click your mouse and whatever you asked the Internet to do. Which basically sucks.

DSL: for the longest time, everyone assumed that you just couldn’t force any more data than 56 kps through a traditional phone connection (what the telheads called "twisted pair," or "POTS," short for "plain old telephone service"). But like water, the Internet always finds a way through the biggest barriers, and now Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology lets anyone run amok on the Internet at speeds approaching an office connection for a price that’s about double what AOL and EarthLink charge. Obviously, regional Bells such as Verizon and SBC are big proponents of DSL, but there’s also a lot of fly-by-night outfits leasing lines from the big boys in hopes of building the next AOL. Regardless of who’s brand is on the bill, DSL is fast proving to be the easiest, fastest and most economical way to deliver broadband to the masses without customer service drowning in complaints about the latency issues of satellite and cable modems.

Astute readers will be scratching their heads, wondering when I’m going to mention Microsoft, since the empire obviously can’t be left out of this particular revolution if it expects to maintain its hammerlock on our collective computing experience. Well, in addition to a major "stake" (we call ‘em bets in Vegas) in AT&T, the biggest news in the broadband world for the Redmondians is their partnership with Radio Shack.

The plan is to get you to go to your local Radio Shack store and sign up for DSL. Radio Shack (and partners Northpoint and Gilat), will handle the set up, while Microsoft worries about the content. Two big, safe, trusted brand names, both of whom have more than a slight clue about this turf - you can’t get much more conclusive than a tag team like this.

Best of all, Mainsail is going to be building a web site for Radio Shack and Microsoft that profiles the coming of broadband to a small town in Illinois, Clear Lake. The proposed site will include video clips, links to live cameras, a town map, and profiles of the local townspeople on how are they are using broadband and how it changed their lives. Sorta like electricity 100 years ago, only with better graphics.