The Shape of Things to Come?

From the AP by way of CNN: "Google Inc. on Wednesday plans to offer free, high-speed Internet access to everyone in its Silicon Valley home town -- a hospitable gesture that the online search leader hopes to see spread to other parts of the country...."

It will be interesting to see what obstacles the existing telecom companies and their hired legislators throw in the path of such plans. In Michigan and other states, similar plans by municipalities and other community bodies have been threatened with legislative bans in order to protect the established monopolists (who, in my case, have priced cable internet service so high that I simply cannot afford it).