By Geoff H. Bates for North America Today

Since the first coast to coast teleportation link was established between New York and San Francisco, the world has seen large city after large city get these marvelous machines installed, allowing for near instantaneous travel to any major city in the world. With country-to-country links first being established and then travel among the large cities within a country following, Teleportation has changed how the world moves from place to place.

Some things had stayed the same. The cost of teleportation was very high and the links were still based in the old airports to facilitate connections to local transportation like buses, subways and taxis. These things are finally changing. The advent of reconstitution travel, however grisly, has forced the lowering of teleportation prices to reasonable levels, down from their concordian heights of only a year ago. The only problem left was links between smaller cities, towns and even neighborhoods.

Officials with the International Teleportation Oversight Agency announced a broad plan to facilitate reaching the aggressive goal of a teleportation station for every significant population center within five years. "This program should be considered the natural ancestor of America's rural electrification or the Russian high speed rail system," noted Ms. Jessica DeWitt of the ITOA.

Not everyone is convinced that the ITOA's stated goal is a wise one. "What happens when all these people who have strong feelings about one another find themselves to be next door neighbors? Ex-Spouses, Mortal Enemies, you name it, the world is going to get a -lot- smaller. Additionally, imagine the effects this kind of cheap, easy global travel will have on the environment and culture. I'm not saying that we shouldn't do it, but we should certainly be careful about how we do it", said noted sociologist Dr. Alexei Zukowsky.

The ITOA anticipates little in the way of enhanced porting fees to pay for the process, saying: "Since we reduced the cost of teleportation, we've seen an enormous upsurge in user fees into the agency, so we anticipate that this program will be revenue neutral for us."

The reception in the markets was mixed. ABL Teleportation and Transportation, the major manufacturer and operator of the teleportation system saw its shares rocket up 12% on the news. The Hyperplane industry sector wasn't so lucky; already under heavy assault from teleportation and reconstitution travel, shares were down sharply.