If your referencing the IETF I am well acquainted with it being a representative for my company from 1992 through 1998 and still having friends that are active with it. You are correct that its function is as a standards not regulatory body. Regulation is considered in the realm of politics and left to government.
Yes it is their network and much of it is older that 30 years old. To be frank we were talking about cable internet access hitting a wall back when I was still working with the IETF. Even then those of us doing operating system and hardware development were telling the cable companies they needed to start building up their capacity. The responses were like those of many large companies who are slow to change and put more emphasis on milking the cash cow of today while trying to ignore the disruptor of tomorrow.
I have no issue with paying for improvements but it depends upon the end. I think it is the ISPs job to handle the backbone costs. For local infrastructure such as the 30+ year old copper that provides the internet connection to most people I have no problem with payments being the subscriber's responsibility. However I also expect the company to do more than lay it and forget it for that additional cost. The copper network that most of us are on is overloaded yet nothing is being done to fix this. Instead they complain about the backbone connection which is the cheapest place to add capacity. In fact I think it is frequently used as a coverup for the poor quality of their local networks.
As for the .com corporations. I could say they do pay their fair share as they pay an ISP to carry their traffic just as I do. So maybe the cable companies should be dealing with their peers or backbone provider. As to the Title 2 protections they worked for phones even after competition opened up the networks. The Internet isn't really any different. As far as rate increases they have been pretty stable in my area, Research Triangle Park, for the last 10 or so years. Mostly because some of the larger towns have a viable alternative service provider which help those of us in the boonies. We also have Google and Ting building or planning to build in the area putting further pressure on the cable/phone companies. Also for full disclosure my rates can never go up due my contract with the ISP but I'm an exception to the rule.



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