Wikipedia is allowed to and does in fact give itself away for free. Go to wikipedia.org and check it out. If your question is why shouldn't tellcos be allowed

Wikipedia is allowed to and does in fact give itself away for free. Go to wikipedia.org and check it out. If your question is why shouldn't tellcos be allowed to give wikipedia away for free, then that is a more complex question that requires a more complex answer. But it is a question that is entirely unrelated to the present net neutrality debate as it is happening in the US. The present debate is about telco services for which people pay a lot of money for. It is not about connecting the previously unconnected poor but about limiting the connections for people that are already connected and expect to stay connected. Perhaps there should be an exception made to net neutrality for services for the poor that are free of charge. The same way food shelters do not have to comply with the same laws as restaurants. Fine by me, but this is beside the point and not germane to the main net neutrality discussion.