How about a line-of-sight (LOS) infrared network, a neighbor-net? Always thought this could be a method for a local technical entrepreneur to fund and share their personal T-1 link or for some small network enterprise to avoid local and US federal regulations and compete with the big cable and telephone companies. Appears that LOS infrared is currently unregulated and could be encrypted. Get enough people in a neighborhood to put LOS infrared relays on top of their houses, allow them to tap in, and feed this neighbor-net from some central point that is equipped with a more conventional link. I dunno why infrared, which theoretically has much more capacity than a phone line or coax cable, seems currently so slow, i.e., less than 10 MB in many commercial offerings. Ive no cost estimate for the roof top boxes. Heavy wet weather, fog, rain, snow obviously can affect LOS infrared, esp. low power. Personally, I would like more choices than just the phone and cable lines, especially something that is locally controlled. However, I imagine that if any significant traffic was generated over such infrared or wireless neighbor-nets, the Feds would eventually step in and regulate them. They'd probably want to regulate the traffic over a taut string, between paper cups.