The last thing holding back the Internet from ubiquity is connectivity. You still need either a wired connection, a WiFi hotspot or a wireless card to be on the Web. This still gives the upper hand to cable, phone companies, satellite, radio and the established forms of transmission.

But what happens if plans for WiFi/WiMax clouds actually happen?

Big, big change.

One of two things will happen - you'll either get free or cheap access on a city wireless connection or you'll pay a company a flat fee.

Once you're truly wireless, the remaining distinctions go away. Internet radio now goes in your car. You make free Skype calls from anywhere. Cable and satellite become less necessary. With WiFi, you simply "tune in" the programs you want on a web-enabled TV. (Really, you can do this now. You just won't need the many boxes and the extra fees.) No wonder cell phone and cable companies are investing in WiMax. They have to be panicked.

Live shots for the web and TV become as easy as opening your laptop and plugging in a camera. Sending video becomes cheap. 

Will we recognize the changes ahead of time, or hang on to the old broadcasting model?

The Big Tower model thus ends, ironically, not by a cable, but by a competitor also using radio waves.

That's reinvention.

- Steve Safran, Sr. Vice President, Media 2.0 AR&D