It certainly isn't. Net Neutrality isn't a Federal regulation, it's a broad principle. It can be voluntarily upheld by ISPs, as it was for decades, or it can be enforce at the state level. With actual competitive markets for retail Internet access, specific regulations like this wouldn't be necessary, as customers could choose to leave non-neutral providers.
That's the rub. We don't have competitive markets, there isn't a political desire to create them, and people in rural areas likely wouldn't be well-served by them, when they are at all.With actual competitive markets for retail Internet access, specific regulations like this wouldn't be necessary, as customers could choose to leave non-neutral providers.
The point about rural markets is what got Rysdall riled up last night. Pai was saying that removal of regulation saved a small ISP in Georgia $8000. The pushback he got in the interview was from seeming to ignore the fact that three companies have a monopoly on internet service by using the exceptions of rural ISPs as an example of why I don't currently have only one option for broadband. I wanted to reach through the radio and punch him in the dick