Comcast is moving in that direction. As it is, the DVR doesn't work during any kind of internet outage. It would make a hell a lot more sense if they would go completely in that direction. Why have the hard drive in the house if you can't access it when there's any kind of network glitch? Now that I think about it, I think with the X1 service they include 1 or two boxes as part of the package, so I may have been wrong about the rental amount I quoted before. Still, I do know that we pay per month for the router/gateway. So if I can cut the bill a little that way, I'd still like to. Not to mention, with a separate emta, I can put the emta in the phone closet, and have the router in a location that will give the wifi decent coverage.