Thank god. I can't wait to dump AT&T, and everyone else in town is happy to dump Time Warner. The oligopoly that has been in place among cable providers has gone on far too long, is bad for consumers and job creation.
Still, I don't want these pipes to live in the Google Data Mining Corp.'s hands permanently. I want internet access to be seen as a public utility just like water, sewer, and garbage disposal.
If this ends up true as reported by Tom Cheredar for VentureBeat, it's a great sign for the future of broadband in the United States:
While city officials are staying quiet, multiple sources tell VentureBeat that the announcement could involve expanding Google’s gigabit broadband Internet service Google Fiber to Austin. Alternately, the city could announce plans for a new Austin-based Google campus, or even some partnership to involve the city with a new Google service. Obviously, we don’t know what the announcement will entail, but its safe to say that it’ll be of interest to a broad section of the local community.
As creepy as Google has gotten, I can't shake the hope this we end up nationally move toward making internet access a public utility.