This is a tragedy in the making, but one wonders why a Democratic administration would come down so flatly against the public good and for the corporations? The answer is that the Administration has an even more expansive target in mind, one which involves the corporations and their willingness to undertake the LEAST profitable sector of internet provision--inclusion of the rural and low-income populations to achieve 100% internet penetration.
This is a very bad bargain, a bargain in which the corporations will get federal assistance to extend the internet that last several miles and also get permission to treat the consumers at the end of the pipeline unequally. Not good! Worse yet for companies like Google that rely on natural "market forces" within the internet to provide information about internet use. No way to monitor a system that has artificial constraints on certain less profitable and more annoyingly political areas.
Chairman Genachowski should grow a pair and get on the right side of history, commerce, and freedom of speech immediately! Write him, email him, tell him how much this means to us!
JB