I think people are often mistaken that if there are 2 providers you have competition. There is a perfect parallel to gas - gas stations aren't really 'in competition' with each other most the time.

The same thing with Cable and DSL - while they would like you to be with them over the competitor, that is the extent of the illusion of choice. Both companies have similar philosophies and will end up doing the same thing.

The basic problem is the last mile problem tends to create monopolies (aka natural monopolies). Good spread spectrum wifi last-mile technologies (eg: wimax) might help.

People worry about what will happen if Google goes in to the 700 mhz auction. The alternative is what we have now and worse: telcos have been just plain old evil since the 70s. More of the same is a losing proposition.

Besides which, I'm already paying for my connection, why should my ISP charge Google, Yahoo, whomever for access? I've already paid!

I guess we're talking about MBA-land - extract maximal profit from existing infrastructure. More of the same.