It has already happened.
Cleenfeed was designed to block access to child porn, the UK government seems happy to use the technology which can apply filters to selected IP addresses to block access to articles that are an embarrassment to them. Such as one covering the smoking habbits of Labour party MPs. Cleenfeed is implemented by all the large UK ISPs, over 90% of UK residential access is covered.
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13189
I agree with your assertion that if there was true competition, net neutrality would not be an issue.
However, many companies rolling large amount of physical infrastructure would not make economic sense, and would probably result in grid-lock for years.
The way this has been tackled in the UK and Europe is by regulation strangely enough. The incumbent have been forced to open their access networks by providing wholesale access products to other providers at a commercially realistic price.
For example with DSL, the incumbant provides the infrastructure between the end user and an aggregated pipe connected to the smaller provider, who pays for the port and the aggregate bandwidth.
Slashdot Mirror
It has already happened. Cleenfeed was designed to block access to child porn, the UK government seems happy to use the technology which can apply filters to selected IP addresses to block access to articles that are an embarrassment to them. Such as one covering the smoking habbits of Labour party MPs. Cleenfeed is implemented by all the large UK ISPs, over 90% of UK residential access is covered. http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13189
Try town centre drinking on a Friday/Saturday night. You will see there are already more than enough 'Manimals' here in the UK.
If ISPs were all state run, we would not have this problem. Because we would still using dialup!
I agree with your assertion that if there was true competition, net neutrality would not be an issue. However, many companies rolling large amount of physical infrastructure would not make economic sense, and would probably result in grid-lock for years. The way this has been tackled in the UK and Europe is by regulation strangely enough. The incumbent have been forced to open their access networks by providing wholesale access products to other providers at a commercially realistic price. For example with DSL, the incumbant provides the infrastructure between the end user and an aggregated pipe connected to the smaller provider, who pays for the port and the aggregate bandwidth.