so while I agree that this is a goofy law which was poorly written - there IS a demand for this type of service, and we'll see how it plays out.
Right! Not everyone needs or wants plain old raw Internet access. That is a commodity service which appealed to the early adopters who were technically literate. But in order to make the Internet into a true universal utility which is connected everywhere, all of the time, we need to develop some value-added services in addition to the plain-jane commodity access. So far most product innovation has come about by applying different types of technology to the last mile access and to the network core. Or by subtracting from the standard bundle of services offered by ISPs in 1995. Now it is time for people to look at adding to the plain-jane access service. One way to do this is by supplying managed (or partially managed) boxes to subscribers in their premises. SIP-based telephony services are an example of this. Most SIP-phones are partially managed boxes that call home when they are reset to download some config info. Most ISPs offer managed access or VPN services where the CPE router and/or firewall is managed by the ISP. Shifting the managed service into the ISP premises rather than the customer premises is not a big deal from the technology point of view and enables an ISP to provide more solid guarantees of security to the customer. This is especially appealing to home users since the home environment is generally less secure than a corporate environment where IT rooms and telecom closets are locked and access-controlled. The Internet services business has gotten rather too conservative lately. Where is the innovation gone? Why are so many people in the business satisfied to rest on their laurels and point to their accomplishments back in the 90's? I would have thought, that tough economic times would spur people to greater innovation not less. --Michael Dillon