eferred to as "asymmetric regulation." To date, only one of the rules applied to ILECs, the "open access" requirement that DSL services be available to multiple ISPs, has received any serious attention as being applicable to cable operators. Although this single obligation falls far short of the multiple obligations that ILECs have faced and that have surely affected their rollout plans, even the possibility of new obligations may be slowing cable modem deployment as well. As Thomas Hazlett has observed, cable operators have devoted only a small fraction (1/125) of their capacities to broadband access to the Internet despite the fact that the sharing of this limited capacity slows the cable modem service during hours of peak usage. 28 "Layered Regulation," Vertical Integration, and Network Effects In the United States, the debate over the regulation of broadband services has focused heavily on the need to provide new carriers with access to the incumbent telephone companies' infrastructure and the ability of Internet service providers to gain access to cable facilities. Little has been said about the network effects in the development of this new communications ser- vice.29 The demand for high-speed connections depends on the availabil- ity of services (that is, "content") that require such high speeds. Until large numbers of households have broadband connections, however, the eco- nomic rewards for developing this content will be limited. The Broadband Revolution What is the solution to this "chicken-and-egg" problem? In earlier eras, such network externality problems were solved by vertical integration. The telephone service company (AT&T and its forebears) owned the tele- phone handset manufacturer. The motion picture companies owned the- laters. Henry Ford integrated backward into parts development and man- ufacture and forward into vehicle retailing. Television networks initially produced their own programming. Cable television companies developed their own cable networks to fill a programming void as they e