I have a column in today's Financial Post (sadly, it's buried behind our Google News-proof  walled garden) about how it's a disappoinment  that Inukshuk - a proposed fixed wireless, high-speed network - has disappeared into the bowels of a Bell Canada-Rogers joint venture. Inukshuk's demise is really unfortunate because it would have given Canadians an alternative to cable and DSL to get high-speed access. With Inukshuk now part of Rogers (the country's largest cableco) and Bell (the largest telco), the promise of choice has disappeared. There could, however, still be hope for choice in the wake of an interesting deal between Current Communications Group and TXU Corp. that will see high-speed access delivered over electric lines to more than two million people in Texas. Current, a private company controlled by the family of chairman William Berkman, plans to raise $100 million from a group of investors that includes Google, Goldman Sachs and Liberty Associated Partners. TXU, the largest utilty in Texas, and Current are rolling out broadband over power line service (BPL) to many customers in Dallas-Fort Worth, and have plans to offer it to two million customers in North Texas.
For more insight into the need for speed, Om Malik has a lengthy post - including a fancy chart - looking at how U.S. consumers are being starved for really fast broadband service. Om asks the ultimate broadband question: "how much speed is enough?" Meanwhile, eMarketer put out a presss release suggesting the U.K. will be the biggest high-speed market in Western Europe within three years.