Broadband as a public utility?

The last post looked at broadband as a magic wand - wave it over the economy and presto! new growth.   Broadband access and net neutrality were the great ideas of the late 1990s, so we should not be surprised that they have returned with the Clinton Administration veterans who have repopulated the White House.   In a similar vein, the new FTC Chairman, gently approached the issue of regulation and pricing, saying that " Broadband is a deregulated product. That's good, we like deregulation generally. But when you have deregulation, you also law enforcement to make sure people do the right thing."  Enforcement of the FTC wil be mainly requiring service providers to reveal prices, the real download speeds 9as opposed to what they advertise) and whether they block competitors content.  All good, but the central question for for broadband deployment is whether we are dealing with deregulated monopolies who can charge a higher price ("rent") and thus discourage use.  If the new administration is serious about universal broadband use (rather than deployment or access), it wil have to look at pricing.  the question, generally dodged by all, is whether broadband is now a public utility like electrical power or natural gas, and instead of having each country, town, village and hamlet work out a deal with a provider, it would be better to have the 50 states regulate service provision.  The electrical companies seem to have done okay under this system. The alternative approach to lowering prices would be to increase competition among service providers.  That worked for cell phones but not for landlines, despite the 1996 Telecom Act.  May be a precedent as to the difficulty of getting competition when a heavy infrastructure investment is required.  The the "last mile" infrastructures are cable, telecom, and electrical power - would we run broadband over each of these to get competition? http://www.pcworld.com/article/164679/ftc_chairman_agency_may_enforce_net_neutrality.html