Extending on Kluges point Net Neutrality might make all packets equal and reduce the incentive to improve instead corporations will throttle more and filter the types of data to reduce bandwidth consumption and maximize bottom lines one can also see it as a corporate agenda to maximize profits funded by big cable companies to build a monopoly over one thing we all value greatly the internet.
There have been some cases of local municipalities fed up with the internet service they were provided creating their own lines to the angst of Comcast and similar companies.
There is still an incentive to improve and it doesn't always have to be based on the bottom line of some big companies to do so.
Simply put we need more Longmounts who are willing to do the work on their own and not more corporate controls and restrictions on these type of free market innovations on the internet. If net neutrality was removed corporations would just funnel more money into killing any independent projects like they are already doing, or just update a system when enough people complain and think about making their own piecemeal instead of improving the whole communications network.
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/05/16/internet-sharing-how-to-get-revenge-on-the-cable-company/Earlier this spring, reports started coming in from some nearby friends that their internet access prices had been jacked way up. It seems that the local internet near-monopoly (Comcast) had just arbitrarily decided to increase their prices by $10 per month. Offended by this attack on their frugality, these friends naturally turned to Mr. Money Mustache for advice.
Normally, I’d just advise them to use the magic of the free market and vote with their feet. Call Comcast, cancel the internet service while explaining it is because of the price increase, and select one of several other options we have here in my town (including a city-wide wi-fi network).
But in this case, hearing of this the 20% price increase pushed me over the edge. You see, I’ve had a bone to pick with Comcast ever since 2009, when they secretly funded a voter disinformation program called “No Blank Check Longmont”. It was designed to get the citizens of this city to vote against allowing our town council to use the fiber-optic network that the people paid for and own, to offer services for the benefit of the people.
The cable company was afraid of having to compete with a potentially low-cost internet access program from the city, but since that wouldn’t make a very good sales pitch, they did it by lying instead: saying that the city would be spending taxpayer money on the project. It was completely false, and the town council tried their best to fight the lies with editorials in the town newspaper. But in the end, Comcast just out-spent the council by a huge margin and stupidity won the day. In 2011, the fiber optic vote came back on the ballot, and Comcast funded yet another disinformation campaign with the catchy name “Look before we Leap“. Again, they pretended to be “a group of concerned citizens” despite the fact that their entire $300,000 budget came from the cable companies. Luckily, there were enough informed voters the second time around to kick its ass. The citizens got their fiber optic network back, and Comcast gained a few new lifetime enemies, including me.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/06/big-cable-helped-defeat-seattles-mayor-mcginn-but-they-couldnt-stop-this-colorado-project/The same was done in Canada in Olds Alberta
Fed up with their crap lines they built their own to the surprise of the incumbents.
Rural internet typically slow, expensive
The Olds project is a rarity. Most rural communities across Canada have to make do with internet service — often delivered by dial-up or satellite — that is slow or expensive, or both.
Not too long ago, Olds was in that boat. Some businesses were even threatening to leave town because of the challenges posed by the sluggish internet.
"We had engineering companies here who were sending memory chips by courier because there wasn't enough bandwidth to deal with their stuff," recalls Joe Gustafson, who spearheaded the project to bring a fibre network to Olds.
There were some speed bumps along the way. The town had trouble finding skilled labour to install the fibre cables between people's property lines and their homes, putting the project behind schedule.
But eventually installation progressed and the Olds Institute began inviting large, commercial internet providers to offer their services via the new network. All of them refused to use a network they had not installed themselves, Gustafson said.
The community was undeterred. It came up with a new plan.
"We said, 'Well I guess if we're going to do this, we have to do our own services,'" Gustafson recalled.
The Olds Institute spent $3.5 million to buy the necessary electronic equipment to run internet and other services on the network and to build a central office to house it all. Last July, it launched O-Net.
The community-owned service offers not just internet, but also phone and IPTV services — TV signals carried on the network that includes dozens of SD and HD channels, and movies on demand that can be paused and later resumed.
All told, the project will probably have cost $13 million to $14 million when it's complete, Gustafson said.
"It's a very gutsy thing on behalf of council here in Olds to approve something like that," he added.
Net neutrality is about more than the bottom line but fast efficient communications, that can be built without the need of cable companies.
