Comment Chancellor Merkel is right. (Score 1) 55
Chancellor Merkel is right: the Internet works best when predictable quality standards are available.
Chancellor Merkel is very carefully wrong. Predictable quality standards are orthogonal to net neutrality, but most people don't know that, so she gets away with claiming net neutrality conflicts with quality.
We'll take the quality standards. Codify uptime, packet loss, and latency requirements for residential Internet service. The providers are perfectly capable of achieving reasonable requirements in all of those categories. They will fight tooth and nail to avoid having any regulation of those categories though, because they want the option to let poor/low density/undesirable service areas go begging. An option they exercise daily right now.
Of course, they will never voluntarily offer such guarantees, at any price, so the market will never be able to express a desire to have those guarantees by choosing them. And of course, they will never be forced by law to provide those guarantees either, because they have money. Lots of money. Which is speech. And so the world turns, and what eventually gets passed into law with the name of Net Neutrality stamped on it will be the polar opposite of net neutrality, as these things always are.
I would say enjoy your free and open Internet while it lasts, but it's already too late for that for many of us.