We may be lucky, indeed, and you, too, if you're in range of a cable TV network, particularly as time and regulations pass. States the report:

"Although the cable industry will probably continue to delay open access in order to keep out competitive ISPs, that will last no longer than 2002 (when regulatory protection runs out). While telcos (CLECs and ILECs) chide MSOs for having a shared loop that eventually slows down when too many people log on, the cable companies may be sitting on a goldmine they are not aware of because they have a simple shared architecture that can be continuously split into smaller subnets through the use of IP Media servers and allocating existing bandwidth, this report finds that cable operators are indeed at a cost advantage over DSL regarding adding new edge IP Media server capacity and allocating new bandwidth to bandwidth-hungry local users. In other words, cable MSOs appear to have an architectural advantage that could put them (eventually) ahead of the DSL competition. Cable modem allocation appears to have the capability to focus more bandwidth and more IP Server power to local loops. This means markets can be done on the sub-local level, averaging 500-2,000 per local loop."

It's big-picture analysis like this that makes this report worth its weight in gold for those who stream for a living. And a lot of people who will be among the dot-coms which are doomed to collapse over the next couple of years may regret not investing in it. It is not a pleasant thing to be on the wrong end of the Internet "food chain," which the report details:

The IP Media Foodchain

"Besides having bigger and smarter networks than the general Internet, the IP Media business will grow as part of the maturation of the entire IP Media Foodchain. Like any ecosystem, the IP media food chain has pieces of both the old and the new industries. The different elements of the food chain have enough of the old economy and enough of the new economy components in them to be able to have a reasonable chance of surviving the harsher climate of today's stock market that looks more closely at the bottom line performance of new companies."

By looking at five elements of the food chain, the report examines the economic health of key companies in each sector and describes what some of the healthy companies are doing right.