Even tough Net neutrality rules wouldn't 'regulate the Internet'

[Commentary] The draft network neutrality rules the Federal Communications Commission put out for public comment on May 15 have drawn a searing response from conservatives and libertarians, who ask why we need government to protect the neutrality produced by the free market. That's a fair question. But some critics go further, arguing that some tech executives and their allies want the FCC to "regulate the Internet." Except that's not what's happening.

Silicon Valley firms are begging that a number of decidedly non-Silicon Valley companies, ones that are accustomed to life as monopolies or near-monopolies, be regulated as public utilities. Those would be the regional phone and cable companies that are the exclusive providers of wireline broadband Internet access. In many markets, there are only two Internet service providers offering broadband to homes and apartments: the local phone company with its digital subscriber lines (or, if you're lucky, fiber-optic ones), and the cable company with its cable modems. More than a few communities have only one of those two. And the neutrality (or "open Internet") rules would regulate traffic management on just the last mile of Internet connections.