Meanwhile, a quieter war between the cable companies and the phone companies is being waged for the next great high-speed home internet access technology. The front-runner has definitely been the cable modem, which allows downloads at ethernet speeds or thereabouts (though, at least with the implementations we've seen, uploads still take place at standard modem speeds). The latest news shows a new contender, though-- Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL. Wired News reports that those crazy kids over at Lucent have come up with a way to make DSL simpler for the phone companies to support.

DSL technology, which allows 7 Mbps speeds over standard copper telephone wire, has been around for some time now, but its implementation has been hindered by the past necessity of a phone-company installation at each user's home. Lucent's new version of "splitterless" DSL (which they are either calling WildWire or LiveWire; Wired seems to refer to it by both names over and over again) only requires that the customer buy a special modem, and that the phone company installs special switching equipment at its own central offices. Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq just announced an alliance to create a DSL standard with the majority of regional Bell operating companies in the U.S. With WildWire modems becoming available later this year and costing only $200-300, it seems very possible that in a year's time we could all be cruising along at 1.5 Mbps. That's less than a sixth of the speed of cable modems, but it's fifty times as fast as a 28.8 kbps connection-- and cable internet access isn't available in all, or even most, areas.

Before you get too excited, though, there still remains the little task of setting up a standard. Given how long it's taking to carve out a 56K standard, we're not holding our breath, but if WildWire can get fired up soon, the phone companies have a fighting chance in the home access wars.