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US Appeals Court Won't Rehear 'Net Neutrality' Challenge (reuters.com)
A federal appeals court on Monday declined to rehear a challenge to the Obama administration's landmark "net neutrality" rules requiring internet providers to guarantee equal access to all websites. From a report: The decision by the full appeals court in Washington not to reconsider a three-judge panel's decision that upheld the ruling comes days after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai proposed to undo the 2015 net neutrality that reclassified internet providers like public utilities. The 2015 order bars internet providers from blocking, throttling or giving "fast lanes" to some websites. Pai has proposed reversing the reclassification and scrapping internet conduct standards, and has asked for comment on whether the FCC can or should retain any of the rules barring blocking, throttling or "fast lanes." Judge Sri Srinivasan said in a written opinion reviewing the decision "would be particularly unwarranted at this point in light of the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the FCC's order."
You got it spot on. Unfortunately the internet is more sporadic than this due to tyrannical regimes, terrible internet service providers, and similar.
Ideally we'd simply have real competition, but the government has ensured that isn't possible. To give people an idea on just how terrible it is listen to this. So this past summer I got hooked up with fiber internet access. The install wasn't cheap. It was $3,000 to run fiber 8/10 of a mile. A neighbour and good friend got a quote to do a connection between a junction box and his home that was less than 1/10 of a mile away from multiple junction boxes. You could practically spit and reach it. His quote? $17,000. Why? Cause the cost of licensing poles is insane and the poles to reach my place were already licensed. Who do you get this license from? The city. Want to solve the problem? Stop inflating the costs of running fiber. The city likes it because they get a huge $$$ and the incumbent competition likes it cause it stops competition.
Ultimately with more competition we probably wouldn't need net neutrality.
The government spends billions of dollars on a massive money pit called interstate highways. The roads your car drives on are government-funded with more-or-less equal access to any qualified driver. America's Internet is like if we had private roads everywhere instead of government-funded ones. You'd have to pay more (since it wasn't being subsidized elsewhere), there'd be no roads outside of major cities, and you'd be refused access to certain businesses if they refused to pay fees to allow you through.