802.11 to the ISP. That sounds expensive. Are a lot of ISP's offering that now? I haven't heard of anyone else connecting to their ISP with 802.11. Is EVERYTHING better in California?

There are hometown ISP's everywhere but DSL is basically a monopoly. Your average Joe ISP is offering DSL over Telco lines. The CLEC's are all dead now or will be soon. Cable is similar in its monopoly, but cable companies are a little better on the service end (at least around here.)