Interesting news on broadband debate (cable vs DSL - cable cos vs telcos)
In OECD countries, cable companies, rather than incumbent telecommunications carriers, have been the leaders in introducing broadband access services. This is especially true in countries like Korea, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, and Japan.

In 1999, 84 per cent of OECD broadband subscribers used cable modem services and 16 per cent used DSL. In 2000, the share held by cable modem users had slipped to 55 per cent with DSL users at 45 per cent. In 2002, DSL took the lead with 54 per cent, cable modems were at 41 per cent, and other platforms at 3 per cent. Across the OECD, DSL subscribers grew twice as fast as cable modem subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2002.

While telecommunications carriers in these countries did not lead the way to offering broadband access, they have often proven to be formidable competitors once they begin to offer digital subscriber lines (DSL) services.

Total of 55 million broadband subscribers in the world. (out of which 22 are in South Korea - partly because cable was also deregulated which was not the case in US).

Microsoft is also entering the telecom business by offering IP based TV software (media player) which can help telecom operators' sagging revenue. (this is developed along with reliance). Seemingly the HDTV transmission over IP is cheaper than the current cable TV which is transmitted over a separate video network with MPEG compression. So with this box( costing around 100$), it would be possible to move over to a single internet infrastructure. (cable cos maintain two networks - one for internet and one for video).