Americans from Both Political Parties Overwhelmingly Support Net Neutrality
I oppose net neutrality regulation. In principle, I don&#x27;t think there&#x27;s anything wrong with an ISP prioritizing certain kinds of traffic over others, so long as it does not have an anti-competitive effect.<p>For example, I don&#x27;t see how Netflix paying Comcast to zero-rate Netflix traffic is fundamentally different from Amazon contracting with mail carriers to subsidize the cost of shipping for Amazon purchases, or even -- to use an example another commenter made -- an appliance manufacturer contracting with electrical utilities to subsidize the cost of electricity used by their appliances. So long as Comcast makes its zero-rating program available to all content providers -- including their own -- on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, I don&#x27;t think there are any competition issues.<p>I&#x27;ve heard people argue that zero-rating makes it harder for smaller content providers to compete, since they won&#x27;t have the resources to subsidize their customers&#x27; traffic. As I said in another comment, that&#x27;s just the nature of business. Being big affords you certain advantages, like economies of scale. This makes it easier to compete on price. Smaller companies have to compete in other ways.<p>In my view, the real problem with the telecom industry in the United States is a lack of competition [0], a problem caused at least in part by municipal [1] and state [2] governments. With more competition, net neutrality would be a non-issue. Consumers would just stop using ISPs that unfairly discriminate between traffic.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nationalreview.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;410353&#x2F;net-neutrality-already-obsolete-michael-hendrix" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nationalreview.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;410353&#x2F;net-neutrality-...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wired.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;07&#x2F;we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-just-cable-companies-and-blame-local-government-for-dismal-broadband-competition&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wired.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;07&#x2F;we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-ju...</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;broadbandnow.com&#x2F;report&#x2F;municipal-broadband-roadblocks-by-state&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;broadbandnow.com&#x2F;report&#x2F;municipal-broadband-roadblock...</a>