"...Well, yes. But if the goal is free and transparent markets, what prevents Verizon, or ATT, or whomever, from charging more?..."
Frankly, I'm in favor of forcing the continuation of the Flat Fee approach to Internet service and in sitting on their chests and regulating them much more closely for a while.
I'm all for free and transparent markets in many areas of endeavor, but I don't hesitate to advocate for the Feds to play the 500-pound gorilla and sit on the chest of pseudo-monopoly A or B for a few years or a decade or two when their product becomes (a) ubiquitous, (2) important to the day-to-day affairs of the general public, (3) of great economic and strategic importance, and (4) a monopoly or autocracy is looming on the horizon which needs suppressing before it gets out of hand, for the public good.
"...I mean some people STILL don't have broadband. You can buy a cheap mobile phone service..."
Yep. Some people still don't have broadband of one flavor or another. But every year more and more folks DO have it, until, by now, it's as commonplace as sliced bread.
"...What gives Verizon a right to make it more expensive for ME to contract with Netflix?..."
Because you (and I) are making Verizon huff-and-puff and have a heart attack, to keep up with something that they used to be able to provide-for much easier, because there was so much less of it, earlier?
"...And, I assume you label yourself a conservative, yet you are supporting less transparent markets. How can that be?"
I'm confused how Increased Scrutiny Through Regulation equates to Opaque Markets, but, I'll have to live with such confusion, I guess.
Meanwhile, I'm exactly what I say in my tagline; a Cafeteria Centrist.
Some of my own positions are a Left-leaning (like mine, here)...
Some of my own positions are Right-leaning...
Some of my own positions are straight-down-the-middle... the Center...
One of the nice things about being a Centrist.. and a 'Cafeteria' one at that who picks and choses what he wants on an issue-by-issue basis... is that you're rarely slammed for being a Party Man or One Trick Pony...
Conservative on some things, Liberal on others...
You caught me taking-up a stereotypically Liberal (
more government regulation) position on this particular issue...