I strongly support maintaining net neutrality as regulated by title two. Commissioner Pai is quoted in the NY Times as saying "Instead, the F.C.C. would simply require internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them and entrepreneurs and other small businesses can have the technical information they need to innovate." This sentiment is grounded in a lack of understanding of how the American public gains access to the internet. By design, we allow local monopolies for telephone and cable providers. These are, in turn regulated by state public utilities commissions. As such, most Americans have little to no choice on which ISP provides Internet to their home. I have only one option for high speed broadband, and its one of the many companies that would love to have an unlevel playing field. 

They would love to be able to claim to be innovating by creating "fast" lanes and "slow" lanes. The end effect would be that my local provider's streaming services would be in the fast lane, and any competitors would be in the slow lane. Simply providing the consumer with transparent information about how my provider is unfairly crippling it's competitors while promoting it's own services will not allow me to make better consumer purchasing decisions. I am left with the same single option, only now I know how badly I'm truly being taken advantage of by my ISP. 

The ISP would make more money by being given the legal option to institute racketeering-style programs for both its consumers and business partners. The ISP could simply demand more money from a business to “ensure” that it’s service performs well for the consumer regardless of whether or not the provisioning of that service costs more money to provide. This type of unregulated playing field will cripple innovation as the smaller players will be unable to compete, and the big players will be hampered by the ISPs playing gatekeeper to the consumer.

Maintain a free and open Internet! Maintain Net Neutrality!