Before WiFi no one gave much thought to sharing with ones neighbor. But with broadband becoming more popular and more powerful broadband companies are worried that subscribers are going to get together with there neighbors and have one connection shared amongst people in close proximity to one another. Cox Communications is not real happy with routers that now allow one IP to be shared with multiple users. They did not have a beef with it in the past when it took a physical wire to connect machines. They are definitely worried about the technology.
This should get consumers thinking and communities could develop there own private networks and rent big network pipes from providers.
They have been trying to roll-out tiered pricing for a long time and WiFi could be the excuse they are looking for. The goal now is to insure that all traffic in and out of our routers are transparent it’s no ones business how many computers I have tied into my connection. After all I will soon have 6 net connected individuals in my household how much bandwidth do you think we use as a family?? [Seattle Times]