Understanding the broadband plan Analysis/Commentary Has anyone really understood the impending broadband plan? If so, he or she might explain it to me. I feel there are still steps missing. Let's assume that Forrester Research analysts are right -- that broadband will take over the 56k modem industry, and that already many businesses are leaping onto the broadband wagon. Is that enough to say that broadband has arrived? High bandwidth technology still seems to need work in at least three areas: Connectivity. We hear every day of new miles of fiber optic cable being laid, and wireless transmissions leaping up the spectrum. Then how come DSL is bracing for a setback? Why are cable companies in a quandary? Is the modem hurdle too much of a pole vault? For one thing, no matter how sophisticated the wires or waves, the switches and microprocessors remain electronic, unable to easily pass from electrons to photons. Wiring or networks. As a rule, existing networks don't integrate varieties of data easily. They remain, for the most part, voice systems awaiting the integration of data. Entrepreneurs may lay as much undersea cable as they want, at one point or another Ma Bell -- low tech -- takes over, and we're back in the stone age. Content. Even assuming that the ISPs, telcos, and hardware companies put their infrastructure in sync, where does that leave content? Are we really aching for the kind of broadcasts over the Net that the TV networks currently provide, or are we looking for intelligent, useful content? Of course, the situation isn't hopeless. Witness a whole lot of mergers in the ownership of news sites, and just this week Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) announced a breakthrough in the development of optical switches made of metal film. Doubtless, progress looms. But, hey, who's got the ball? December 27, 2000