If Cable Won’t #UnlockTheBox, Why Would ISPs #ProtectNetNeutrality?

[Commentary] Big Cable’s #DitchTheBox proposal is one of the most recent examples of an industry’s inability to self-regulate in the absence of federal regulation, and many of the same companies offering pay-TV services are the same companies providing broadband internet. Big Cable’s past history of discrediting its own promises via its behavior epitomizes why it cannot be left to self-regulate. Big Cable said it would do one thing for consumers when faced with federal regulation, then did nothing when that threat evaporated. Replacing the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality rules with a voluntary system where broadband providers dictate their own rules (or lack of them) will likely result in the same scenario. In the end, we’d be exchanging strong, court-tested net neutrality rules with a series of ISP-designed loopholes that would serve as a catalyst for market abuse -- and more consumer ripoffs.