There were some scattered and quickly resolved problems, and Comcast certainly acted foolishly (and arguably dishonestly) in the case of BitTorrent throttling.

There were some scattered and quickly resolved problems, and Comcast certainly acted foolishly (and arguably dishonestly) in the case of BitTorrent throttling. But there was no evidence of widespread problems, and the Comcast-BitTorrent issue was resolved six years ago without the FCC playing referee: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9904689-7.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9904689-7.html The reality is that Net neutrality became politicized long ago. It was embraced by pro-regulation left-leaning groups, who were in part funded by Silicon Valley companies who seeking a competitive advantage through the political process. And yes, AT&T and Comcast and other providers played defense by funding advocacy groups on the other side. You may remember that I was the first to disclose some of this dodgy stuff, back in 2008: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10016960-38.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10016960-38.html Once that politicization happened, rational thought in DC ended and it became something that a certain subset of politicians said "WE MUST HAVE," no matter what the law actually allows, which is a dangerous precedent. So welcome to today's state of affairs. On HN, however, I'd hope that we can be a bit more rational about this. PS: If you think that a bunch of Tea Party conservatives in the House are going to defend AT&T, Comcast, VZ, etc. if they start blocking web sites, etc., you're badly mistaken. Also remember antitrust laws still apply even if the FCC vanishes tomorrow.