Future of the Internet Highway

Link: Excite News. The biggest battle that is shaping up in tech in the coming decade is that between the telcos and broadband carriers and the rest of us. They think they own it, because they built it, even though they built it with our dollars, and with public utility-like government protection. Equal treatment on the net requires that we resist the lobbyists who want to create a "toll based Internet" that will get preferential treatment in data transmission. The telcos and broad band companies need to get an education in the military roots of the Internet. The basic backbone was built by taxes, and, while private enterprise has leveraged that backbone, and added to it, it is still a public trust that all citizens have equal access. The best metaphor for this is the national highway system. Should the concrete contractors be able to put a toll booth across the Interstate because they built it? But, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.