The Last Mile: Broadband and the Next Internet Revolution

This book is aimed at the business executive and small business owner with no current knowledge of broadband, and assumes no technical background in Internet technology. The book focuses on explaining the terminology of broadband, the trends involved, their business communications and product implications, and how Web-based businesses may be affected.If you know what broadband is or have seen it in action with multimedia sites, you are beyond this book.Broadband is simply a way of describing the ability to rapidly move screenfuls of data to and from an electronic device (such as your personal computer) more rapidly than you can blink. The result is to create something that can be a combination of interactive television, video phone, and multimedia experience rolled into new directions by using information to customize it for you. In essence, broadband eliminates many of the remaining limits to information technology coming into its full flowering for the average person. If you work for a large company and are dealing with another large company in a computer application, the information is almost certainly traveling at broadband speeds. If you are at home on a dial-up connection, you are operating in the old mode. By 2002, it is estimated that 16 million consumer users will have broadband connections. The authors believe that telephone and power companies will be the winners over cable companies in creating this connection at home.The main implication for businesses is that products and services for consumers will have to be greatly upgraded in content, interactivity, and use of information to match the potential of the technology in the next 5 to 10 years as the broadband connections become widely available at home. Since this process will be difficult to implement, many companies should begin now to make the transition. Your first experiments will probably not succeed. The book is a light, easy read. The best parts are the wild-blue-yonder, what's-coming-next speculations. The authors seem to have a Stan Davis-type ability to conceptualize what does not yet exist in an interesting way. I especially enjoyed the humor in the list of 10 reasons to dread "smart" electronic appliances. For example, the one attached to your pillow may allow your boss to find out that you are late because you overslept. If this is a new subject for you, be sure to read this book. If it is not, be sure to work on getting a lead on your competitors in preparing for broadband technology.When you are done doing those things, then ask what other technologies are about to disrupt your business and find out more about them as well. For example, how will holography affect you?May lots of health, happiness, peace and prosperity be yours!

This is a great book for those people who tend to lead businesses from an MBA perspective, rather than the technically savvy geek who may sit in his or her server room for hours. It is the perfect book to use to explain the the changing culture of Broadband to a diverse group. It can help consumers like myself, to CEOs, to an individual who may not even know how to program his or her VCR. Fabulous read and the case studies are perfect. Prepare yourselves for the future with this book. The best part: the part about the changing employee in todays workplace; extremely important stuff to keep in mind.

I found this book extremely beneficial in determining the effect this new technology will have on my growing business and what I need to do to hop onto the Broadband-wagon. The language and diagrams are easy to read and understand, proving invaluable to me and will help anyone who is technically challenged.

Though initially apprehensive about reading this book, I needed to for work and I am so happy I did. I was expecting the typically wordy, overly-technical writing that so many similar books suffer from, but THE LAST MILE was written in a language I could not only understand, but learn from. Broadband will soon be taking businesses by storm and I am now one step closer to taking part in all that it has to offer. By demystifying the unknown, I feel better equipped to move forward. This is a terrific book for anyone who wants to expand their realm of understanding and not get left behind in our new economy.

The internet is here and everywhere, in television ads, in print ads on billboards. Where is it going and how can I understand this supersonic train? THE LAST MILE gives the reader a very clear idea what is in the future for internet applications. This is a book for everyone - from a technology side it is well researched, and written so that anyone can understand what is happening and where it is all going. I highly recommend this book, and I think it appeals to a wide range of readers - those who are in the field, to any business big or small who already uses internet and wants a leading advantage, and even to those who are just learning the concept of the cyber-age and all it's implications. It's a great read!