What I don't understand is, if we're all so powerless as consumers why aren't we being charged $200/mo for high speed internet?
What I don't understand is, if we're all so powerful as consumers why don't all customers in major metro areas have the option of FTTP, and 100mbit/s+ throughout our ISPs network? If you're lucky enough to have Verizon as your monopolistic telephone provider, you
might have that option. The rest of us don't.
As MechAg pointed out, there are preexisting monopolies: 2 telcos in most areas, because one was originally a cable provider monopoly, and one was originally a telephone co monopoly. Technology advanced; monopoly arrangements didn't.
There are two somewhat equitable solutions to this mess:
- deregulate telcos and have a federal law superseding all local and state laws, so that anyone can dig up streets and alleys to run fiber; OR
- bite the bullet and accept net neutrality, because if we don't, the internet is going to become balkanized.
The problem is that the first option is even worse than the second. Nobody in government has seriously proposed it, because doing so would be political suicide. Local governments hate it because they have nice cozy relationships with their existing monopoly-granted ISPs. Major ISPs and their lobbyists hate it because they'd actually have to start competing again at a local level. A significant number of private citizens hate it because they don't want streets or alleys torn up constantly.