Dennis Hayes made lots of modems. He was the first and he was the best. His company, Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., dominated the market for PC modems in the 1980s and early 1990's. A modem, short for modulator-demodulator, would turn data into tones, then send those tones along the telephone line, so an analog system could mimic a digital one.

As modems approached the 64,000 bit/second speed level, in the early 1990s, Hayes wanted to move data faster. But Dennis Hayes was deeply involved in a new project he called ISDN, an all-digital system. It was faster than modems and it was very cool. But in order to get to ISDN, Hayes needed the cooperation of the Bell companies. They promised cooperation, time and again. Like leaches with dirty laundry, the Bell companies lied and cheated Dennis Hayes. And this was an American tragedy. Yes, they said they were committed to Hayes project. But Dennis waited and waited. He bet the company on ISDN.

A good and decent man, Dennis Hayes lost it all, went bankrupt because of the vile Bell companies no better than child molesters. By the time the Bells began offering real digital services, in the late 1990s, they were offering ADSL.

Originally considered an alternative to cable TV, ADSL offered 1.5 Mbps downloads and 384 kbps uploads, while sharing the line with your phone. But by the time ADSL became a player, Hayes was bankrupt, gone, out of business by 1998. The moral: don’t ever trust a Bell company. Don’t bet on a Bell company fulfilling its promises. Ever. But that’s just what the USA is doing, right now. Once again the Bell companies have made promises. FIOS, Lightspeed. They have made these promises for 10 years. They have reneged on all their earlier promises, and before they meet these (or claim to meet them) they demand, not only a monopoly on their lines, but control of the Internet itself. The Bells wanted tribute from Web sites, they wanted the right to favor some over others, they wanted to define every service the Internet can deliver at the edge at the center, and they promised to hoard bits until they got what they want.

With 1990s technology, in fact, you could have 7 Mbps ADSL. Just strip out the portion of the bandwidth used for voice. Use VOIP instead. God knows what you could get with 2006 technology, on an ordinary copper line. But the Bells won’t give it to you. They want to cut copper when they bring in fiber. They expect you to power the fiber. And they will define the terms for all those customers, forever. This is their promise. They promise to get to you with this miracle Real Soon Now. FIOS. Lightspeed. It’s going to be wonderful. Right now the government at every level – federal, state and local -- is doing exactly what Dennis Hayes did. And We the People are being left behind as a result. We’re being bankrupted, all of us, because the Bells are hoarding our bits, demanding everyone pay them tribute, making promises they have no intention of keeping. Internet connections are like a giant road network. They’re basic infrastructure for the information age. The Bells are giving us oxcarts while other countries get superhighways. It’s time to say enough.