I recall there have been conditions to telecom service availability in continental northern Europe before - the providers had to provide a service in defined areas within certain time limits or face fines. It worked quite well actually. Sometimes regulation helps customers. In places where free market is worshiped the result of avoiding general regulations (communism!!! tyranny!!!) are a mess of less general regulations often conflicting and lacking in other places. I guess I am a commie or?
The funny thing is - I lived in a country that worships the American way and there I was waiting for a land line in my appartament 10y - when I left the country I still did not have one. I guess it is the same with ISPs today. Not sure if this is me or maybe there is indeed a pattern but judging on the constant flow of complaints from the land of the free there seems to be a problem there or?
As for cohding again - not sure what the fuss is all about - the companies I worked for so far had always a mix of workers from different backgrounds which more or less resembled the society in which they lived. It was similar in every country and company I worked for with exception of one sorry place in Germany where there was not a single local engineer. I also hear from my colleagues in US hat where they are there is indeed skewed racial balance among workers - almost no whites for instance: 3 whites in 100 of workers mostly of East Asia, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladesh origins. One may of course claim this means I have contact people with low pay companies in US. That may be but they still work in IT. So where is the racial problem Obama is addressing then?
Work continues in this area. -- DEC's SPR-Answering-Automaton