It was supposed to be here now: DSL, cable, possibly fiber, delivering an always-on, high-speed Internet connection right to your door. Broadband―the applications are limited only by your imagination. Games, entertainment and home networking are just a few of the easy ones to name. And the boost it could give to the battered technology sector of the American economy isn't hard to imagine either. A massive deployment of broadband would fuel demand for new hardware from the tiny component level all the way up to the high-powered boxes carriers need to keep the pipes humming. But, what was supposed to be is not ― yet. "Everyone expected broadband to grab hold quickly," said Matt Davis, analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston. "We haven't seen it yet." The simplest way to stimulate a market is to lower the price. And many analysts do think current prices are a barrier. "Consumers have been slow to accept the $40 price-point," Davis explained.
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