We are about to see a major investment in telecommunications, one that will substantially impact the lives of our children and their children for probably the better part of the next century. At the least, there will be a new access network that gives us multi-megabit per second communication from our homes to other people and to businesses across the nation. Impetus for this change can be seen in today's use of the Internet and on-line services. Web browsers bring interactive communication with computer graphics to millions of hitherto unsophisticated computer users. They promise on-line commerce, audio and video entertainment on demand, and a much improved quality of communication between ordinary people. For the moment, the Internet experience is severely compromised by the low speed of networks that reach into our homes. That will change as cable television providers, regional telephone companies and others compete to bring about a two or three order of magnitude increase in the speed of network access.