How airlines explain network neutrality

How are Internet fast lanes any different from paying more to "sit up front in the big seats on an airline"? If you want better service, maybe you should pay for it. The fact that folks are naturally turning to airlines to understand net neutrality suggests the air travel industry may have something to teach us.

So let's unpack this analogy a bit. I'll tackle this in two parts: One will address how describing it as "paying for the big seats" doesn't adequately capture the net neutrality problem, and the second will tweak that analogy to try to help put the net neutrality issue in more concrete terms. Paying Internet service providers for the right to serve consumers faster and more smoothly — a concept known as "paid prioritization" — is not like being a customer on an airline. For starters, while you can pay for better treatment on an airplane, everyone on the plane gets to their destination at the same time, whether they're flying in coach or business class. Paid prioritization is different in that it would actually speed up some types of Internet traffic. So for the airline analogy to hold, the first-class section would have to detach from the rest of the plane in mid-flight and go supersonic. Planes don't tend to do that.