The Internet isn’t plumbed like the water system

[Commentary] Many activists would like to treat Internet service as a utility, to be regulated the way the power and water systems are. In those industries, a government board sets rates and can authorize or reject proposed capital investments.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order requires ISPs to provide detailed data about their internal routing policies and performance metrics. Does it make sense to view ISPs as utilities? Internet pipes are very different from water pipes. An ISP doesn’t just deliver data packets -- it delivers particular data packets to particular destinations.

[Rabkin is a professional software engineer]