In my debates on NN I run up against some myths that net neutrality-ites have popularlized. I plan to knock them down one by one over time.
Myth #1: Net neutrality is the way it has always been and NN proponents are just asking for a maintenance of the status quo.
That is only partially true and it gets less and less true every day. That's becuase NN was a monopoly era policy that is being phased out and made obsolete by the emergence of broadband competition. In other words, NN is a vestige of the dial-up world that will continue to phase out as people upgrade from the dial-up slow lane to the broadband fast lane. The FCC, supported by the Supreme Court, ruled that broadband could not be a monoploy market, becuase it was nascent and competitive market.
Other "inconvenient truths" for NN Mythologists:
NN has not applied to wireless since 1993. This is not a minor fact. America has over 200 million cell phone users which represents more access lines than the former wireline monopolies and there are more wireless minutes of use than wireline minutes of use.
NN has never applied to cable modems either. So roughly thirty million American cable modem users have gotten along just fine without NN.
NN has never applied to Satellite broadband, BPL, WiFi, Muni-WiFi, or WiMax.
So NN is NOT THE STATUS QUO.
The truth is that NN proponents want to dial back time and apply dial-up era NN to all broadband providers for the first time! That's a big change! And a devastatingly negative change for companies that have invested assuming a competitive market and no price regulation.
I don't believe NN proponents are dishonest, but I do believe they are in serious denial about some very obvious and undeniable facts.
