AT&T (really, SBC with a new name) headquarters are in neighboring Chicagoland. They have a long and storied record of opposing any and all potentially competi

AT&T (really, SBC with a new name) headquarters are in neighboring Chicagoland. They have a long and storied record of opposing any and all potentially competing public infrastructure, to the point of e.g. suing to prevent municipal broadband initiatives in communities that they have refused (at least, until the time of the initiative, and sometimes even thereafter) to service themselves. Whatever your political position, it's clear that the current Republican administration in Wisconsin favors private infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance over public. This is playing out in numerous, diverse sectors. What's unfortunate, from a technological perspective, is that this fairly apparently provides less service at significantly higher costs, and it delays upgrades by years. In Illinois, getting DSL service from SBC/AT&T was a painful, frustrating experience -- when you could get it at all -- until the cable companies, particularly Comcast (I'm not expressing love of them, here, either) began large scale deployments that significantly ate into SBC/AT&T's customer base. Based on my experience and layman's perspective, my interpretation is that this is about patronage and not technical nor financial innovation. Reading between the lines, it might also be an attempt on AT&T's part to block a potential Google high speed deployment in Wisconsin. Madison in particular has been suggested by some as possibly a prime location for such a deployment. And the same Republican administration has been pushing initiatives that would aid in severing relationships in the current, statewide network of public higher education institutions. (Generally regarded as functioning quite well and offering the population coordinated diversity of opportunities.) The described changes would also dovetail with these efforts. P.S. The book that's mentioned, Where the Wizards Stay Up Late, is a good read particularly if you are unfamiliar with BBN, the development of (D)ARPANET, etc.