We didn't really expect you to actually use broadband....

The broadband access providers (aka the telephone and cable companies) are shocked, just shocked, that their customers are actually using broadband.

Their response?

According to this article in The Register, the big companies are already installing software that slows down much of what people want to do, to the point of making them give up and/or buying the service from the access provider.

This article talks about Skype, the popular Voice over IP service, and how the cable companies are using software to slow down Skype calls, with the hope that their customers get fed up and buy VoIP from the broadband provider instead.

The two tier Internet is already well underway, and the only cure is to distribute ownership of the network among property owners (us), the community, and the broadband providers. By doing so, we get the ability to set some of the rules. If we simply give up and let the phone and cable companies recapture natural monopolies over broadband, they get to set the rules.

Communities that pursue distributed ownership of the network will become havens for business, because broadband services will be cheaper, better, and more plentiful.

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