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Comment by bksenior | Hacker News Reader

Unpopular Opinion (but similar): If the ISPs win and the rules get rescinded, I think we are looking at their ultimate poison pill. An egregious push like this ends up stoking an unprecedented backlash at about the time that we see a bit of a swing in midterm elections that create less conservative leaning legislation and we finally get rules written that promote localized community broadband and essentially the end of their monopoly. As stated, I think they are pretty much making money like a monopoly now and as they push further I think they are gonna get "Ma 'Bell'd."

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Another unpopular thought:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment

I think net-neut advocates who really think there's a dark star in the offing for the web should be pushing utility-style muni networks. They're wasting time and money trying to shove the FCC into their view of the marketplace here, and shedding longer-term credibility by refusing to countenance two realities:

1) Broadband is becoming a more competitive industry, not less

2) FANG have parochial business motivations too re: their pro-net neutrality, and they are no more angelic than Comcast's.

Defocusing on national rulemaking and incubating muninet successes in rising cities would do more for their desired outcome.

> https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment

The internet is textbook interstate commerce, and therefore not subject to the 10th amendment. You're getting internet from an ISP who's likely headquartered in another state, who's delivering content from a provider in a third state, and routing that traffic through a half-dozen other states. It would be an absolute mess if every state could say what constitutes "network neutrality" and the ISPs had to deal with different laws at every routing hop.

You are right, but that isn't at all why I referenced 10A.

I referenced it because, in the U.S., the residuary (or "police") power resides in the states. Large ISPs have tried to fight municipal broadband in the courts, but [the point I am making here] is that states and municipalities have extremely broad discretion in terms of what projects they can undertake. And building a local ISP is something they certainly can do.

> 1) Broadband is becoming a more competitive industry, not less

Would love to see a citation for this, most people (my view is US-centric) have the choice of 1 or 2 local broadband wireline providers: the cable company and/or the local telco. This hasn't changed since... ever. Having a third provider is very, very uncommon.

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