Well, my take is that it's just another step towards elimination of the independent ISPs. The telco posesses the remote access equipment, and routes the traffic to the ISP of the user's choice. The ISP becomes a content provider, and/or a host for the users site/file storage. The next thing you know, the telco will be hosting the ISP's servers and disk farms at their POP, and the ISP becomes the equivalent of a travel agency - no products, no computers, just a reseller of the telco's services.
Before long, all the small guys, i.e. independent ISPs will be gone (Ascend's big customer base), and all that will be left will be the big guys, i.e. AOL, IBM, telcos, cable companies, LD carriers, and corporate central sites, (USR's big customer base).
At least, that's what my crystal ball says, today. |
