Why net neutrality matters

[Whoha]

Don't we have competition laws for a reason? How does "net neutrality" differ and if it does, why should it?

No, we have regional monopolies.

[Whoha]

This certainly didn't take long.

In Canada, which does not currently have net neutrality and virtually every ISP has stringent and unrealistic data caps with obscene overage charges, the largest cable ISP dropped their bandwidth cap the day Netflix announced its Canada service.

Now another Canadian cable co, which has bandwidth caps and obscene overage charges, has announced a Netflix competitor. The catch? Their service won't count towards your paltry bandwidth cap, while Netflix's will. Of course, the service sucks. It's over twice the price with 139 titles, but Netflix isn't very practical with the low caps anyway, so it's not like you have much choice.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/07/very-bold-or-very-dumb-data-caps-dont-apply-to-isps-own-movie-service.ars?comments=1#comments-bar

Expect to see all kinds of **** like this unless the US passes net neutrality legislation...

Anyone have the picture about how fedexing 2 gig hard drives to each other overnight is now faster AND cheaper than canada's internet?

[Whoha]