Smell The Regulation Coming: Report Calls Internet “Core Utility”

Above The Law reports:

Did you know that the New York City subway used to be run by private companies? That’s a glib way of saying it, but while the city built the infrastructure, the tunnels were leased to privately owned systems. The legacy of that is why some trains are numbered but others are lettered.

Eventually, that is what is going to happen with ISPs. Sure, now we get our internet from Verizon or Time Warner or whatever. But eventually internet will be a utility service, like heat or hot water or THE PHONE, that must be made available to all at a reasonable price.

Another step in that inevitable jouncy comes in the form of a report from the White House’s Broadband Opportunity Council. It says that internet access has moved from an “optional amenity” to a “core utility.”

The report is focused on people who do not have reliable access to that utility.

Will your industry become a "core utility" ? Will the federal government fix wages and prices and erect barriers to entry to provide monopoly profits to subsidize poor people?