Broadband is no longer about the size of your pipe, but how you use it.
Now that about half of US households have broadband, the issue to think about isn’t just high-speed connection, but what value-added services can use the broadband connection to increase our quality of life. I’m talking about things like voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), Internet protocol TV (IPTV), and paid audio and video content.
In-Stat reports that more than 9 million US households have 1+ active VoIP users, and 49% of them have no land phone line. I want to get rid of my home land line as soon as I can convince my wife that her cell phone can work just fine at home. (All my kids have their own cell phones and they never use–or answer–the land phone.) I’d also like to get rid of my work land line as soon as our IT department finds a cost-effective way to jettison our land phones and issue VoIP cell phones to all employees; about half already have work cell phones.
On the hardware side: I want to reduce the number of gadgets I use (personal cell phone, work cell phone, home land phone, work land phone, work computer, home computer, iPAQ, etc.) and get better productivity in the process.
On the content side: I want to reduce the number of e-mail accounts, phone numbers, bank account numbers, utility bills, consumer credit accounts, and merge them all into one.
One way to get down to one phone number is with GrandCentral (http://www.grandcentral.com). You can sign up for a free phone number and then when someone calls that number, it rings all of your actual phones. It doesn’t keep you from paying the bills for them, but it makes it easier for people to track you down. It’s currently in beta, but an interesting idea.