High-Speed Internet Leaving Dial Up in the Dust

I am jealous of the world. High speed internet services are taking over, but dialup is keeping me from enjoying the revolution. AT&T promised that everyone of its customers would have high speed service by the end of the year (2007). But an employee told me recently that he thought it would be impossible to meet that deadline.

Why is a high speed connection so valuable? Because without it, there is no access to IPTV (internet protocol television), there is no YouTube - coming or going, there is no VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) allowing me free calls. Even if I break down and spend the money on satellite, the lag, limits, and other issues keep me from fully enjoying the benefits of high speed. It seems all the options for high speed have glitches. At least there are others out there that are suffering along with me.

It’s no fun missing out on all the cool new gadgets, gizmos, and expanding options for IPTV and other technology. I can’t chat live with the folks in the Big Brother house. I can’t upload all the videos of cats being rolled out of the baseball tarps. There are even some truly beneficial things that can’t be done because dialup makes the download impossible, like ebooks or ecourses. Instead, a friend of mine is kind enough to download what interests me and burns it to a CD. It is possible to exist with just dialup, but it isn’t easy.

It’s great that companies are making so many advances in high speed internet offerings. It would be even better if they remembered that there are still some of us stuck in the dark ages of dialup.