A digitally compressed movie takes at least 30 minutes to download over a high-speed cable or D.S.L. connection.

Already, more than 35 percent of American households have broadband lines, and developers are integrating home servers and high-speed cables into high-end new homes.

However the race plays out, Comcast executives say, they think video delivered over high-speed cable will remain central to their business.

The ramp is supposed to be built by the phone or cable companies who are planning to run high-speed fiber-optic cables right to your living room.

The entire public school district is online with high-speed fiber-optic cable, according to Richard Canfield, director of personnel.

As the surgeons moved their hands, their actions were translated into a data stream that traveled under the Atlantic via high-speed fiber-optic cable.

That same month, the corporation announced new high-speed cable and satellite services of the kind that Mercury plans to offer.

"It is not their problem if you work out of the house and need high-speed cable and lots of phone lines."

Both high-speed cable and wireless connectivity are available throughout the library.

But despite intensive lobbying, Bush Administration officials refused to lift controls on high-speed fiber-optic cable, the bulwark of a modern telecommunications system.