Two things of note. Wheeler, the head of the FCC, has come out and said that his plan actually will preserve net neutrality, and that if it doesn't, he might declare broadband providers to be "common carriers".
The first part of that is certainly not true. The second part would be encouraging, if I believed that he actually meant it. Declaring them to have common carrier status would be huge, but I don't believe him when he says that he might do it.
Separately, in a speech at a cable lobbying event, he said that he would seek to override states laws that forbid municipal broadband provisions. Color me skeptical on that, but that would be huge, if true. That would force the companies to potentially face competition, which would make them clean up their acts.
Again, he's probably lying (his choice of where to say that is certainly interesting, though), but that would be fantastic news, if true. Because if there's competition, then net neutrality becomes largely a non-issue, because nobody would choose a company that violated that if there was an alternative.
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