It's a glass half full/half empty thing. If the (only) owner(s) of infrastructure or a limited resource offers access for only a select group, do you consider

It's a glass half full/half empty thing. If the (only) owner(s) of infrastructure or a limited resource offers access for only a select group, do you consider them to be offering a service to that group, or to be starving non-members of access? What do you do about it? Do you hope for competition, or create rules against discrimination? If you create rules, how can you prevent the rule-maker from using the rules to do its own discrimination? If you hope for competition, what if there's not enough of the resource, there are network effects or other high barriers to entry, or everyone in the market decides to do the same discrimination? So, who do you trust less to be the gatekeeper, the government, or the ISPs? Neither answer is really a good one. The telcos are doing what's best for their business, but that's not necessarily what's best for their customers - positioning yourself as the owner of infrastructure is a powerful and profitable place to be, but if you get to be in too good of a position, the same debate will come up again - the parallel to the 1800's is a good one.