Net Neutrality Again?

There is an interesting recent discussion in Europe about net neutrality that has relevance to the US broadband market. The European Commission that oversees telecommunications and broadband has started taking comments on a proposal to force content generators like Netflix to pay fees to Internet service providers (ISP) for using the Internet. This was one of the issues that convinced the Federal Communications Commission to first implement net neutrality. When net neutrality was discussed in the US, there was a good argument made by content providers that subscribers are already paying for end-to-end use of the Internet in the monthly fees paid to ISPs. Charging the content providers for using the Internet would amount to billing twice for the same traffic. Since the original net neutrality discussion here, US broadband prices charged by cable companies have increased significantly, making it even more true that customers are supporting the Internet. Another way to think about the issue is that video is the service that drives a lot of households to buy broadband. The net neutrality issue is one of the most interesting topics from a regulatory perspective. As much as ISPs hate the idea of federal regulations, their biggest fear is a hodgepodge of different regulations in states.