Doc Searls notes the rejection of "net neutrality" legislation, and ponders what's next:

Now that the NN bus has crashed, maybe we can get together and think of better strategies - and not just political ones - to build the Net we want, while preserving the best of what we already have.

I'm not that worried. At the consumer side, there's already a set of tiers, depending on what you are willing to pay for. In my area, there's everything from dialup to 30mbps down, 5 mbps up FIOS. prices range from $15/month on the low end, up to $180/month on the high end. This is far more choice than I had just a few years ago, btw, and it's all coming via the dreaded carriers.

It's also tiered service - not everyone has the same internet experience, which is a lot like everything else. Not everyone enjoys HD TV, either. The reality is, things are improving in the direction we want, without some overriding governmental control. Heck, a few years back, the corporate grade connection into our engineering office in California was a T1 - which offered symmetric 1.5 mbps. I can now buy better than that for my own use.

I'm not really worried about a one way set of tracks being erected - that's not the direction things have been going, and I seriously doubt that they'll start going that way.