So here’s an interesting idea. Let’s say BellSouth implements some priority networking for their network, and charges websites to use that priority network. If I’m a web giant, I’m charging them right back: if you want to be able to provide my website to your customers, you have to pay me a fee. Sounds a lot like cableTV, right? Well, yes: the cable company charges the customer for cable, and the cable channels (e.g. ESPN, Discovery) charge the cable company per subscriber.
But there’s a snag. Premium cable stations are paid for by the subscriber. I don’t know if the cable companies take a little piece off the top (I’m sure they do), but this doesn’t really have a 1-to-1 mapping on the internet. Sure, there are premium sites (that the customer pays for), but it’d be difficult to regulate this. Imagine you pay a subscription to the WSJ. Now, that’s network neutral. Your password goes wherever you go. Your cable box stays in your domicile. So how does the cable company charge the website? Per hit? Per subscriber? On whose network do they count the subscriber?
I think competition, in the end, is what will save net neutrality. Competition, after all, will drive down the prices. Net priority only works if one network has a monopoly on speedy pipes.