And despite the expanded capacity of fiber optic lines, ever-improving bandwidth management and growing global network backbones, even the Internet cannot escape the realities of geography. If you're in Backwoods, Maine it still takes longer for files to be transmitted from San Francisco than from Boston.

With more business than ever being done over the Web, download delays mean lost revenue and frustration. They mean orders not getting placed and banner ads not being viewed. And this is every day, meat-and-potatoes Web usage.

If you're looking for streaming video, multi-player games, or enhanced multimedia like Flash and Shockwave, then you're talking about a consumer experience that is almost guaranteed to be unsatisfactory over mainstream connections. To have anything near a positive experience with these more immersive technologies, you simply have to get a more sophisticated Internet connection.

Of course we all need a faster Internet, but there's more than one way of getting there. On the one hand, DSL and cable companies are racing neck and neck to bring broadband services to the home.

They're making progress, but the ramp-up is taking longer than anyone would like. More telling is the fact that from an end-user perspective, the question of broadband is kind of annoying. Millions of new users are coming to the Web via 56k modems (with AOL, Earthlink, MSN, etc.), waiting, and then wondering what the fuss is all about.

In effect, BigConsumerInternet is telling customers that, while the cheapest way to log in is via modem, you really need to upgrade if you want to have any fun.

Then you have the rash of optical networking companies that are delivering new devices for carrying and managing more data traffic more efficiently. Many of these new optical networking equipment manufacturers are being acquired by the major network equipment players, including Nortel Networks (NT:NYSE), Cisco Systems (CSCO:NASDAQ), Lucent (LU:NYSE), Tellabs (TLAB:NASDAQ), Redback Networks (RBAK:NASDAQ) and Ciena (CIEN:NASDAQ). The advances of optical networking and switching are real, and are being implemented rapidly within telecommunications networks around the globe.

But when it comes to getting Web sites to download quickly, you still have that problem at the POP, or the "edge" of the Internet proper. Which is the battleground for a new breed of companies in a niche called content distribution.

They're essentially about speeding up the delivery of content from a source Web site to the edge of the Internet. The net effect is better Web site performance today, for all Internet users.

Compared to the adoption of broadband, content distribution companies are moving like wildfire because their customers are the most popular Web sites, content aggregators and Web hosting companies, as opposed to end-users. A content distribution solution typically involves storing duplicate copies of a Web site on servers that are geographically dispersed. For example, let's say you live in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Three to four years ago, if you were visit Yahoo!'s Web site, your request would have gone from your local POP in Raleigh across the Internet to Yahoo!'s servers in northern California, and the Web page would have been sent all the way back across the country to your computer. On certain days, it might have taken Yahoo! 10 to 30 seconds to download. Now, Yahoo! has distributed its content around the world with Akamai (AKAM:NASDAQ). So if you're hitting Yahoo! from North Carolina, your request may be fulfilled from a computer in Atlanta instead of northern California. Bottom line: Yahoo! pays Akamai to be reasonably assured that its home page loads in one to five seconds for the majority of users.

Yes, this is a growing business. Jupiter Communications predicts global cumulative content delivery and distribution revenue will climb from less than US$500 million in 2000 to over US$6 billion in 2004. If you have a Web site and you're banking on millions of unique visitors, you have to look at a content distribution plan along with your Web hosting plan. And although there are a host of companies rushing to market with content distribution services, there's really only one solution at the moment.

Akamai (AKAM:NASDAQ) burst onto the scene last fall with one of the most successful IPOs ever. Less than two years old, Akamai is the culmination of the right technology, management and marketing coming together at exactly the right time.

A group of MIT graduate students took on the issue of helping Web sites load quicker as traffic increases. The company attracted premium industry intelligence in Paul Sagan and George Conrades. Sagan founded the Road Runner cable modem business, later acquired by Time Inc. New Media. Conrades is the former CEO of BBN, which was one of the original Internet backbone networks, later acquired by GTE. Akamai rapidly deployed its network solution around the world and built a who's who customer list overnight. Akamai's more than 1,000 client include Yahoo!, Microsoft, CNN Interactive, the NASDAQ Stock Market, Martha Stewart Living, and Barnes and Noble.

Though Akamai's stock was wildly overvalued in its initial months on the market (at one point it topped US$345), the company has weathered the Internet selloff with its market cap whittled down to less than US$4 billion.

Which isn't bad for a company with a net loss of over US$580 million for the first nine months of 2000. Akamai is about growth, execution and dominance. For those first nine months of 2000, revenue grew to US$52.5 million, up from US$1.3 million for the same period a year earlier. Akamai serves more than 60 percent of the top-tier Web sites seeking content distribution services.

Given the fact that Akamai was first to market with a workable content distribution offering, there will most likely not be another moon shot of Akamai's proportions in this niche anytime soon.

Akamai's big challenge will be competition from the likes of Inktomi (INKT:NASDAQ) and Cisco Systems (CSCO:NASDAQ), as both companies are assembling alliances to extend the market for their network software and hardware products. Akamai's two primary direct competitors, Digital Island (ISLD:NASDAQ) and Mirror Image Internet, have joined both the Inktomi and Cisco alliances.

Communications service provider Digital Island entered the content distribution space late last year by acquiring Sandpiper Networks, an early competitor to Akamai. Digital Island is not focused exclusively on content distribution, and has not been able to generate as steep a growth curve as Akamai.

As a result, Digital Island's stock has been pounded down to around US$4 from a high of over US$150 in December 1999. Mirror Image Internet was partially acquired by hosting giant Exodus Communications (EXDS:NASDAQ) in March 2000, and is principally owned by Xcelera.com (AMEX: XLA), a European Internet technology company.

Late last summer, two content distribution alliances were announced, both squarely aimed at chipping away Akamai's dominance. The first is "Content Bridge," a veiled effort by Inktomi to add a third rail to its network software business.

The deal includes content distribution startup Adero, America Online (AOL:NYSE), and the data networks of Digital Island, Exodus, Genuity (GENU:NASDAQ), Madge.web (MADGF:NASDAQ), and NetRail. The arrangement scratched a lot of backs. Adero got an infusion of cash from AOL. AOL got to be a big fish in the pond of performance-enhancing services for its customers. Digital Island and Exodus got to expand their reach within the content distribution space. Genuity (which is basically the old BBN backbone, sold off by GTE to satisfy regulators as a result of its merger with Bell Atlantic, now Verizon) got much-needed traffic. Ditto for Madge.web and NetRail. Everybody's got a reason to play except customers; it's still unclear why a gargantuan Web site like Yahoo! would choose the Content Bridge consortium over Akamai.

Instead of a string of new customer announcements, the biggest thing to come out of Content Bridge so far has been the addition of new vendor partnerships with Alteon, Intel and Sun. Although the jury is still out, this is one of those alliances that may make more sense to its members than its customers.

And then there's Cisco. The same week as the Content Bridge announcement, Cisco came out with its "Content Alliance." Players include Cable & Wireless (CWP:NYSE), GlobalCenter, NaviSite (NAVI:NASDAQ), PSINet (PSIX:NASDAQ), ServInt, and Network Appliance (NTAP:NASDAQ), as well as Inktomi/Content Bridge members Digital Island, Genuity, and Mirror Image Internet.

The song is the same as the Inktomi consortium, but the chorus adds a key element of "open standards." In other words, Cisco wants to make sure anyone can be a content distributor — as long as they use Cisco equipment. Cisco's dominance in the router business helped add another round of members to its "Content Alliance" in September, including AOL, Digex, Documentum, EMC, Entera, HelloNetwork.com, NetSat Express, OBCTV.com, Primedia Workplace Learning, SolidSpeed Networks, StorageNetworks, Streampipe.com, Sun Microsystems, TelefÛnica Data, US Data Authority, Vividon, and Walt Disney Internet Group.

Cisco's stronger market position will propel its alliance past that of Inktomi. But the real question is how competitive Cisco's "open" model of content distribution will be against Akamai.

With Akamai's content distribution service, the equipment is just the equipment. Akamai's magic is in the proprietary algorithms the company uses to monitor Internet traffic patterns and direct the delivery of its customers' Web site content in the most efficient way. Its service does not require customers or Web site visitors to make any hardware or software modifications.

Cisco's ISP relationships are too solid for it not to make a strong entry into the content distribution equipment space. But in the medium term, Akamai isn't going anywhere.

Most likely, they will coexist until Akamai finds a merger partner that makes strategic sense. In the meantime, there are a handful of exciting companies that have entered the content distribution niche, all of which may soon become decent investment opportunities.

Based in Laurel, Maryland, and founded by Digex co-founder Doug Humphrey, Cidera uses satellite technology to beam content to POPs around the world.

The technology is like a huge bypass highway, routing Internet traffic past crowded landlines. Customers include Verizon, Telocity and RoadRunner, among other high-end Web sites, content aggregators and ISPs. Perhaps most telling are Cidera's partnerships with both Akamai and Digital Island, as well as the fact that the company has been funded by New Enterprise Associates, Worldcom, Intel, Dell and GE Equity, among others. Cidera filed for a public offering this spring, but pulled its registration statement in hopes that the IPO market will rebound.

In the meantime, the company raised another US$75 million from a group of investors including the Carlyle Group, GE Equity, MCI Worldcom Venture Fund, and New Enterprise Associates. Watch for IPO plans to resurface in 2001.

What if store operators could give loyal shoppers preferential treatment, allowing them to butt into the front of the line and force first-time browsers to the back? The Web equivalent of this scenario is what distinguishes Epic Realm, a content distribution startup out of Richardson, Texas.

Much like Akamai, Epic Realm has built a global network with sophisticated caching and prioritization software to help speed up Web site performance. The company hopes its focus on e-commerce Web sites will mean a profitable niche-within-a-niche.

Customers include Web sites such as Sportstalk.com, Privacycouncil.com, ICL, and WebCE.com. In the past month alone, Epic Realm has cut deals with hosting provider Aperian, Inc. (APRN:NASDAQ), streaming media company Media1st.com, and Scandinavian e-business service provider ISL Invia. The company has raised more than US$90 million from Lehman Brothers, Vantagepoint Venture Partners, and TE Capital. Though it has not yet filed a registration statement, it would not be surprising to see the company try an IPO in 2001.

Despite NBC's Grinch-like veto over live Web broadcast of the recent Olympics games, a new company called Axient made a splash in providing content distribution services for the high-traffic NBC Olympics Web site.

Just as Epic Realm is focusing on e-commerce, Axient's sub-niche focus is full-screen, high-resolution video and stereo sound. Heading up Phoenix-based Axient is CEO Michael Gordon, a former Cyclone Software founder. Axient's executive suite includes talent from GlobalCenter, Level 3 Communications, Bell Atlantic and MCI Communications.

The company launched its content network in the spring of 2000, and it is now available in more than 60 U.S. cities. Partnerships include equipment manufacturers Sun Microsystems and Alteon WebSystems, network service provider Williams Communications, Computer Associates, Entera and EMC.

Finally, there's the well-funded Edgix. Like a typical New Yorker, the Silicon Alley company is trying to put forth a new acronym (ESP, for "edge service provider") to differentiate itself from Akamai and the other content distribution companies.

It might also be because, now that it has raised over US$50 million from Chase Capital Partners, Battery Ventures, and Venrock Associates, among others, the company can afford to call itself whatever it wants. Last fall, Edgix announced a deal with Everest Broadband Networks, a player in the so-called Building Local Exchange Carrier (BLEC) communications market. The deal brings Edgix's network caching service to over 200 aggregation hubs in 25 North American cities. But Edgix's real "edge" might lie in how well the company seizes international content distribution opportunities.

The company signed Chello Broadband to deploy Edgix caching services across its global network of 500 cable head-ends in Europe and Latin America. And most recently, the company entered the European market through a deal with IX Europe, a hosting and facilities management service provider. The deal enables IX Europe's ISP customers to deliver better Internet performance based on Edgix's content distribution services.

As the demand for improved performance continues to grow, the challenge facing Web site operators and content aggregators remains clear.

Internet service providers and complex Web site management facilities also face the additional challenge of delivering maximum bandwidth while managing rapid growth. In a dramatically short amount of time, Akamai has made an impressive name for itself by helping the biggest sites on the Web work better. Moving forward, watch for Cidera, Epic Realm, Axient and Edgix to extend the content distribution niche.