The user access part of the end-to-end broadband communication system is often called the "last-mile." Bringing together academic and industrial experts from communications, networking, computing, and signal processing, Jayant (Georgia Tech) presents nine papers that discuss technological issues of last mile access, including physical transmission and network architectures. Papers describe DSL (digital subscriber line), HFC (high frequency connection), optical, wireless, and satellite solutions; look at media compression and content distribution; relate the last mile to the backbone network, and explore end-to-end networking and information routing.