This is factually incorrect, as you can see from this territory map, (which was last updated in 2014 btw) ticking between both wired and wireless bandwidth types, the entire map except for a tiny sliver of rural/remote areas mostly protected land, have more than 1 choice in ISP.
Additionally, with the advances in wireless technology this will be moot as the entire planet will have accessible and very likely “free” internet before the year 2020 if we can avoid D Day.
I’ve been a Telecom consultant for the last 30 years working for many ISPs/phone carriers as well as many small ma and pa service/support telecom shops running cable/fiber, planning infrastructure and installing phone systems. I’ve been the guy up on the pole, in the data centers and one of those guys on the conf. bridge programming the routers for your new bandwidth being deployed. I’ve been the guy working on those massive switches in the NOC which are also the same systems running those huge hotels in Vegas with thousands of connected nodes. Trust me, I know Telecom and Infrastructure and I am NOT advocating for any of the Telecom giants in any way nor am I saying they haven’t done their share of shady things recently or in the past (just like Google, Facebook, Twitter have too) and that they don’t also need to be scrutinized under watchful eye. And they WILL for sure by now, with all this public and global attention of NN.
But, I can tell you the NN hype is very much like that of Y2K and the fears of throttling your favorite activities on the NET unless you pay more is extremely unrealistic. Can I emphasize the word “e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y”?
What many don’t realize is the source of the hype is not coming from consumers or your average Joe citizen who read some legal mumbo jumbo about NN. No, consumers, media, Hollywood and politicians are the tools being used by those with the agenda and you need to know who these actors are. These are the big players that now rival the size and power of governments but only survive if they can keep this power AND the attention of the public (popularity, i.e remember MySpace used to be somebody?). Yes, these very same content providers that spy and steal our private information are also the ones behind the push for NN using consumer misguidance to keep their profits up knowing the reversal of NN could and likely will force them to pay a premium and they WILL indeed pay it if push comes to shove…AND they would still profit immensely, just not as much.
Another important aspect is the fact that services once only provided by a public utility are now being provided over the internet, i.e. phone service (VoIP). I’ve been working with many VoIP systems/services for 2 decades now and with the massive increase in bandwidth availability and lower ISP costs, VoIP is rapidly replacing premise-based systems connected to private phone networks everywhere and not just in private homes.
One of the major issues facing Real Time (RTP) streaming services since NN, is the lack of ability for ISPs and VoIP providers to standardize on Quality of Service protocols/mechanisms to ensure VoIP, especially e911, to not be queued up (delayed) in routing equipment like that of TCP since TCP is not time sensitive and will re-transmit failed packets unlike that of RTP.
You can’t re-transmit a part of a phone call but you can buffer a media file such as a song or a video even though it also uses a form of RTP mixed with TCP.
Since NN was put in place, providers have been unable to ensure VoIP packets are classified with higher priority tagging mechanisms thus diminishing the huge “voice” industry’s ability to provide stable and reliable phone service across networks. Imagine your only phone access is via your internet because you have no cellular service and your local phone company delivers it’s voice services via the internet bundled package…someone breaks into your home and you pick up your Vonage line and dial 911 but the congestion doesn’t allow you to communicate clearly or the call gets dropped mid-conversation or maybe doesn’t even connect. These are very real problems that NEED to be addressed but blanket legislation designed by those not in the know of the technical challenges we face have stifled progress especially in this one glaringly huge industry that uses the internet.
Lastly, for those of you that think NN protects you from throttling, think again. It happens all the time, every day, even today, last week, last month, last year…somewhere, something, and/or someone is being throttled and sometimes they also get in trouble for it. Could they fix VoIP and just pay the fines, like they do when they throttle for other reasons, sure, but unless they are forced by the consumer or the heavy hand of the law, they won’t if it costs them a premium.
Lastly, of course I am not in favor of the idea that an ISP could or even would throttle my Netflix traffic over some streaming service they provide directly but I would surely hope that if I have to pickup the phone and call 911, I’d hope my streaming Netflix would indeed suffer (if necessary) until the call completes and this they could not do until last week.