this month's _wired_ has an article penned by joshua davis on what
might potentially be the next big thing in broadband service: BPL, or
broadband over power lines. though there are bugs to be worked out
(electromagnetic interference being the worst offender), BPL shows a
lot of promise, particularly because the infrastructure is already
widely in place. it could be a fairly low-cost means of distributing
broadband to the not-so-wealthy masses.

An earlier related story can be found online at wired's site:
<http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62327,00.html>