And that magically makes it more expensive to dig up thousands of miles of dirt to lay cables?
Unless your less-expensive alternative is "not have an internet."
I think there's some confusion as to what the internet actually is. Your ISP isn't the internet. The internet is a network, or rather a network of networks.
To understand this you need to understand how the internet was created. In 1969 DARPA funded ARPANET. The idea was to create a robust decentralized network made up of interconnected small computers called Interface Message Processors (Routers). Instead of every computer being physically connected to every other computer, the routers used TCP/IP and packet switching to route packets from one router to another until they reached their destination. At this point the internet was very small, consisting of UCLA, Stanford, UCSB, and University of Utah.
Then in 1985, the National Science Foundation began sponsoring multiple coordinated projects to expand this concept forming NSFNET. In 1986 the internet backbone was composed of a number of 56kps links. These quickly became saturated, and the NSF funded 13 nodes to be interconnected with T1 lines. Then in 1991 this was expanded to 16 nodes with T3 interconnects forming ANSNet. They also began to look into joint networks involving both for profit ISPs and non profit research institutions.
They settled on a simple concept: settlement-free interconnection. This forms the backbone of the internet today. On the backbone of the internet, everyone routes everyone else's traffic regardless of what it is and without any packet based fees. If my network gets a packet addressed to somewhere else, then I send it through my network to its destination. I don't slow it down, or charge an additional fee. THAT is what makes the internet so powerful.
ISPs like Comcast connect you to the "Net Neutral" backbone of the internet. Your traffic goes You -> ISP -> Tier 2 Network -> Tier 1 Network -> Tier 2 Network -> ISP -> Destination.
They're kind of like your power distribution company. Power distribution companies (by in large) don't produce electricity, they just deliver it to your house. As such, the power companies aren't allowed to impose regulations on what you do with that power. For example, a power company isn't allowed to produce their own line of refrigerators and then charge you extra for or entirely block power to any other brand of refrigerator.
Being against net neutrality is very much like being for the power company being allowed to decide which type of light bulbs you use or refrigerator you own. You're paying for the power coming into your house. Why would anyone support power companies deciding what you do with it?
The same things goes for Net Neutrality. ISP's sell you a connection to the internet. You pay for that bandwidth. What you do with it is your business, not theirs. Comcast doesn't get to decide which search engine you use, what sites you shop on, and where you get your news. Without net neutrality ISPs can do things like block or slow down anything they find objectionable. Someone writes a detailed complaint about the iSP? Well maybe you don't get to see that.
Is that really what you want?
