Nortel's new forays into corporate sales and wireless-Net gear are led by India-born Clarence Chandran, chief operating officer.

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Its closest competitors are likely Net Gear and Logitech.

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Main.net's gear already serves 10, 000 European homes at speeds of 500 kilobits a second, roughly equal to average cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) speeds, but a tenfold increase over standard dial-up modems.

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The second-order effect of all this cheap gear is rapid Net penetration into poorer countries like India and China, which are becoming vendors of even cheaper products and services.

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No problem, net execs say: While DVRs and other gear may proliferate, most viewers won't use the gadgets as ad-killers or pay for commercial-free programs.

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