So you think broadband access to the home is all about sharing pictures, cruising YouTube and downloading files from friends? Think again, and market accordingly, service providers – home access is becoming more about remote workers and telecommuting, at least during the “work day.”

Gas is quickly approaching $4 per gallon, well in advance of summer. I’m more than guessing that high-speed Internet access is about working effectively without getting behind the wheel of anything with an engine.

Telecommuting and remote workers both have been alive and well in corporate America for many, many years. But with almost everyone doubling their downstream speeds or more in the last few weeks, you can do way more from home.

Service providers should do some math on the cost of commuting via car and via public transit with and without parking, and so on, and build Internet marketing campaigns accordingly. The speed is there, but the focus is almost entirely on what you and others do before and after work, not what you could be doing during work hours.

It’s mostly about smart marketing and packaging, areas where service providers sure seem to need improvement with residential services.

You can’t watch a newscast without hearing some mention of soaring gas prices here in mid-spring. You can’t go a commercial break without an ad for a TV service, feature or bundle. And between TV, visits to the mailbox, and more, you can’t go at all without a mention of high-speed Internet.

But direct marketing without a message is like a joke without a punch line.

We get the long-standing price war among cablecos, telcos and everyone else. We get that speeds are increasing without a huge boost in price. And we sure get that the price of everything else is increasing quickly too.

Let’s make the focus for residential Internet on what you can do from home during the day, and what it costs people when they leave the house....to drive to work.

Oh, and maybe be thankful that home broadband gear doesn’t have a gas tank. Otherwise, extreme networking would mean siphoning gas from the neighbor’s lawnmower.