Actually I have a fantasy in which Google becomes an ISP. I'm not sure why it doesn't. It has the cash and the corporate friends, and it certainly could help make its own (YouTube) problems go away by getting into the business of the last mile.

I count two choices here?

Companies like: Qwest, Comcast, Cox, Timer-Warner, Verizon, AT&T

In general, all of these big players are playing the same angles. So if the two big players in my area are Qwest and Comcast, and both of them are trying to play hardball with Netflix, then where does the consumer turn when Netflix cuts off access to both of them? Well, both Qwest and Comcast will gladly step up to plate with their own Netflix-like offering that isn't of the same quality, but 'good enough' for most consumers who just can't be bothered to try and seek out a better experience (they would rather just gripe about it, but put up with it). This is the same thing that happened with PVRs and TiVo. Most of the cable companies went to lengths to shut out TiVo and delay things like CableCard 2.0 as much as possible while rolling out their own solutions and pricing them into existing service packages.

So your are really only SOL if you have only one choice. In which case I'd prefer to do without. Except for Netflix, I could do most of my other online activities fairly well over dial-up.

In all honesty, cox was the only choice for me for a long time. I think qwest only started offering DSL in my area very very recently.

Of course, I work seriously weird hours, so....

EDIT: Ouch. My ~4PM-whenever workdays are seriously incompatible with all the public meetings I see on HeatSync's page. Don't they ever have stuff on the weekends?