A friend of mine at work suggested that data service be re-classified as a utility. Great idea ! I read it again today from the NetEconomy:

He argues effectively that if the Federal Communications Commission passes rules that allow the telephone companies to offer DSL without the cost-effective resale options for their competitors that exist today, it will be making the same mistake it made with the cable industry, when it failed for push through open access to cable data networks. "Reality is, if the RBOCs—who have used their regulated-monopoly financial strength to do everything except give us a broadband outside plant since 1984 -- had been forced to put ratepayer money in the ground here instead of overseas, we would not be on our way to statistically becoming a third-world broadband nation by next year," Bernstein writes. "We'd all have a wavelength to the house by now."

His solution: "Amend the 1934 Act to make universal service 100 Mbps for cable and wireline monopolists. Put a timetable on both regimes, with heavy punitive action if they are not met, to pass every household. Give customers an election for who will be their primary carrier. Enforce a wholesale/retail model on access, and make others who wish to access me help pay the bill so deployment costs are reasonable. Lift the NCTE decision and make termination equipment part of service."