Not to bring the conversation here, I just wanted my very large comment to be hear for others to see as well.

Not to encroach on your fun/debate/conversation I’m hoping for Google to just buy up all the dark fiber across the US and create their own backbone to the internet, a backbone that they would never be charged to used by the telcos. Maybe that’s just were the entire internet will go, Google, M$, Yahoo! and others will just be their own internet providers sub-leasing from the telcos and supporting the cost by ads. I would love free internet as long as the “adsâ€? are done in a semi-transparent way like GMail. Then the real QOS for the “innovationâ€? that Nate talks about would be paid directly through the telcos. But then what about the start-ups?
I’d have to say I wish I knew more about net neutrality but from what I understand I’d have to agree with a “neutralityâ€?. I’d love to see all the future dreams that QOS would bring without NN but who’s to say it wouldn’t come without it. Look at Verizon FEOS, it’s quality internet service that you pay more for, the user pays for it not the user and the companies that profit from the user using the internet.
And I thought that is what this was all about. The ISPs charging internet companies for QOS. In my opinion this is horrible. Putting QOS in the hands of corporations that can afford it only monopolizes the internet. And for Google to stand up and say they want NN is commendable in my eyes because corporate greed would have them say no to NN so then they could push the competition out. Other online application providers would fail because if you could use GMail with great speed and QOS the start-up that pushes a “betterâ€? product with poor QOS because they can’t afford it would break all start-ups.
No NN = no progress. To me.
The way I see the internet going would greatly suffer if there were no NN. I want start-ups to create great online apps that change our life, like what 37 signals has done.
Another topic barely associated with NN is the fact we paid for the internet through our tax dollars. All that fiber we paid for and it not being used or being provided to us is something we should also petition. Instead we have cable internet being the fastest ISP which is not near what was promised to my parents or my younger ignorant self.