The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access (Publication of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Projec)

Historically, the problem of connecting communications providers' neighborhood substations with individual subscribers' homes and offices has been called the "last mile problem," or the challenge of the last 100 feet. In The First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access, a group of authors turns the problem around, presenting it as an obstacle to be solved and financed from the bottom up (by non-telecommunications businesses, communities of homeowners, and individuals) rather than from the top down (by telecommunications companies).

In discussing the problem in a series of assembled articles, the authors explain the relative merits--both economic and, to a lesser degree, technical--of various connectivity solutions. They cover cable modems, satellite dishes, dedicated-line services like Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), cellular technologies, and fiber optics.

The First 100 Feet employs rather academic writing styles throughout, and it's rife with charts and endnotes. Some of the economic data presented is fascinating: technology adoption trends are explained by comparing the cost of a phone call in 1947 (and its subsequent decline) with the cost of a personal computer between 1985 and 1998. There's also valuable advice on how the institutions that affect our lives--including local governments and utility companies--might adapt to compete in the coming connected world. --David Wall