I've been fairly on the fence regarding net neutrality, and this article turned me around on the issue.
Previously, it was nearly impossible for me to reconcile a valid reason for regulating the telcos. It's their pipes, they should be able to route it however they want. And aside from that, we've never had net neutrality -- there's no ISP I've ever used that allows unfettered upstream access to port 80 from my home, for example. That was, up til now, my belief, which I understand is not a popular one.
That said, the final paragraph actually hit home with me.
"As long as consumers don’t have freedom of choice, last-mile traffic discrimination should be per se illegal."
If the game is already rigged, then the players should have to play by the same rules.
there's no ISP I've ever used that allows unfettered upstream access to port 80 from my home, for example.
Back in the day, I used to subscribe to Sprint's wireless cable equivalent. It had a range of 30 miles from the base station, and provided cable-equivalent speeds (for the day; the upstream was very slow by today's standards). Notably, they also provided a static IP address and unfettered access to ports 25 and 80, so I ran my own personal web and mail servers.
As you realize in your last two lines, if we had more competition, ISPs might still block ports by default for consumer safety, but provide a no-cost, no-hassle option to unblock them.
The claim that the infrastructure is theirs is pretty dubious.
Sure, they may be the ones making money hand over fist on the pipes, but we US taxpayers invested $200 billion for them to build out that infrastructure. We paid for the pipes that they are profiting off of and now mismanaging.
Previously, it was nearly impossible for me to reconcile a valid reason for regulating the telcos. It's their pipes, they should be able to route it however they want. And aside from that, we've never had net neutrality -- there's no ISP I've ever used that allows unfettered upstream access to port 80 from my home, for example. That was, up til now, my belief, which I understand is not a popular one.
That said, the final paragraph actually hit home with me.
"As long as consumers don’t have freedom of choice, last-mile traffic discrimination should be per se illegal."
If the game is already rigged, then the players should have to play by the same rules.
Edit: s/traffic/pipes/g