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Fred Wilson over at avc.com had a high impact post today on net neutrality and the movement to regulate it.  http://bit.ly/bzETiJ

I highly recommend a read through of the comments.  Fred has a very smart and friendly community going on over there.

The web has been all a twitter - pardon the pun - about this.  With strong criticism coming from free market activists and the right.

My main take away is this: 

Broadband, as in, the interwebs :), has now grown big enough that it needs regulation.  What’s important about broadband in my view is that in 1st world countries such as the U.S., access to it is becoming a necessity, possibly a fundamental right.  Broadband is a similar commodity to utilities such as power and/or water.  We are at a point where everyone should be able to have access to broadband such as they have access to electricity. However, we stand here at a point to set forth the rules and regulations governing broadband for the future and hope to avoid the pitfalls we have made in the utility sector over the last century.

We should learn about what has worked for the utilities in the past. How successful has the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) been?  Was it better off before the deregulation of the energy sector? Does the fact that most of us don’t have a choice in our utility provider factor in?  Are utilities and therefore broadband becoming a right to every citizen such as where health care is heading?  These are questions we should be asking to ensure a flat, competitive playing field for all consumers when regulation is decided upon.

I think we could learn a lot on how to proceed with broadband by focusing on the history of government regulation and interference with utilities. 

I know some pro-nuclear advocates who encourage federally owned utilities.  With the argument that it would actually lower electricity costs.  I, a staunch capitalist, cannot agree to such extreme terms but believe that federal regulation is necessary when the economics of a situation break down.  A telecommunications company needs to be blind to the data flowing through the pipelines.

I’d like to end this post with this humorous passage.  Sadly, I’m not sure who the original author is but I found it here: http://bit.ly/9mHBWA

“This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food & Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards & Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and the fire marshal’s inspection, which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com, Fox News forums, and intowncolumbus.com about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.” 

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