According to a number of demographic studies conducted in the last 18 months, there are approximately 70 million households today that host home office workers, and the number is growing rapidly. These numbers include both telecommuters and those who are self-employed and work out of their homes. They require the ability to connect to remote LANs and corporate databases, retrieve e-mail, access the Web, and conduct videoconferences with colleagues and customers. The traditional bandwidth-limited local loop is not capable of satisfying these requirements with traditional modem technology. Dedicated private-line service, which would solve the problem, is far too expensive as an option, and because it is dedicated, it is not particularly efficient. Other solutions are required, and these have emerged in the form of access technologies that take advantage of either a conversion to end-to-end digital connectivity (ISDN) or expanded capabilities of the traditional analog local loop (DSL and 56K modems). In some cases, a whole new architectural approach is causing excitement in the industry ( Wireless Local Loop [WLL]). Finally, cable access has become a popular option as the cable infrastructure has evolved to a largely optical, all-digital system with high-bandwidth, two-way capabilities. We will discuss each of these options in the pages that follow.