If you had DSL in 1998, it had nothing to do with whether you were rich or not (anyone getting on the Internet was 'rich') - it had everything to do with how cl

If you had DSL in 1998, it had nothing to do with whether you were rich or not (anyone getting on the Internet was 'rich') - it had everything to do with how close you were to the nearest node. Disclaimer: I helped start one of the US' biggest ISP's in this era, and personally installed and handed over multiple DSL configurations to folks living in 'poor' neighbourhoods which were, incidentally, close enough to the NOC to be viable DSL customers.. Plenty of 'poor folks' in downtown LA were able to get DSL, purely by the nature of their vicinity to One Wilshire ..