Ask HN: How do we democratize bandwidth?

A recurring theme these days, especially in the US, surrounds the growing mediocrity of the malevolent oligopolies who provide bandwidth to businesses and end users.

Patton Oswalt give a talk last night, mentioned the internet, and explained that most people in the room have better filmmaking technology (on their cellphones!) than did Orson Welles when he made Citizen Kane. His point about democratization is true in so many creative fields, from filmmaking to software development to comedy writing. Individuals and small groups have unprecedented power to create great work, and the disruptive effects of this are being felt in so many industries.

As we watch the sagas of WikiLeaks, MetroPCS and AT&T's marketing-only 4G network, it's apparent that distribution and bandwidth are only as democratized as corporate interests will allow, which threatens all the advances we've enjoyed in these lowered barriers to entry.

So how do we disrupt that? What application of people and technology will let us side-step the massive capital investments and central control that have historically been requisites for high-bandwidth networks? Is there anything on the horizon? Is anyone working on neutering these telecom scumbags in a meaningful, sustainable way? Give me some hope, here.