Cities see this as a way to spur economic growth: on the one hand to put tools in the hands of the underprivileged and give them a leg up, and on the other to provide incentives to small businesses to locate in these cities and to expand their operations.

High-speed broadband access is the electricity of the 21st century, yet many rural and poorer urban communities are being left off the grid. The innovators and organizers at the National Summit for Community Wireless Networks are blazing the trail to make broadband affordable and available to everyone.

It's very rational behavior in the industry. I would do the same thing if I was paid by my shareholders. But rational market behavior doesn't necessarily mean good public service.

If [the phone companies] are successful, Brand X will stand as the trigger that reverses a century of communications policy and undermines the bedrock principle of democratic media, which is nondiscriminatory access for all.

These pricing schemes are simply poorly disguised discrimination. Requiring Internet companies to pay for high-speed access to the Internet when they're already charging consumers for the same service means consumers will ultimately pay twice.

What we have here is no less than the future of the Internet as we know it.