The next thing that will happen is, when Comcast goes too far, another provider (cable? wireless carrier? satellite broadband? something new from a startup?) disrupts the market by offering an alternative to Comcasts' egregious policies. Comcast loses subscribers and is monetarily forced to be more consumer-friendly.
Ok, so the competitor can build their own fiber network. That’s very expensive and time consuming, but it can be done...if local legislators approve it. Sure hope Comcast and friends don’t have any influence there! This is one of the suspected reasons for the failure of Google Fiber, but hey, maybe it’ll work next time.
Incidentally my two options for internet service are:
1) Comcast 2) A local competitor offering sub-1MBPS
Some choice.
As for internet service options today, yes, it's not great. But it's getting better. We already have several options; here are two examples. Some wireless carriers already allow unlimited tethering; no cables needed. Broadband via satellite is available virtually everywhere in the US; again, no cable infrastructure needed.
And what does the future hold? Undoubtedly more competition: the internet already plays a huge role in our lives, and that's likely to only increase. A startup that can disrupt the cable company stranglehold would tap a huge market and force cable companies to be more consumer-friendly.
This is laughably naive.
If we wish to talk about hand waving, consider all the "the internet is going to blow up!" hysteria[0] going on right now from the pro-NN side.
[0]: https://twitter.com/thereaIbanksy/status/940989790677291010
Selling a plain service and doing it well for a fair price should have won most consumers but they will switch companies for minor discounts or the shiniest cellphone then complain they get shafter
But if startups have taught us anything, it's that businesses find a way to disrupt existing economies even in the face of regulations.
Ironically, Net Neutrality (NN) is itself a regulation. One of the reasons we reject NN is because creating regulations often has unintended consequences. We believe it's better to not have the regulation and let the free market and open competition sort out the details.