Net neutrality never really existed?

dido writes: "In his most recent column, Robert X. Cringely observes that network neutrality as it is now understood may have never really existed at all. It appears that some, perhaps all, the major broadband ISPs have already been implementing tiered service levels for a long time. From the article: 'What turns out to be the case is that some ISPs have all along given priorities to different packet types. What AT&T, Comcast and the others were trying to do was to find a way to be PAID for priority access — priority access that had long existed but hadn't yet been converted into a revenue stream.'"