For the most part, your ISP provides a service and you are free to use that service as you wish. Of course some exceptions exist, such as bandwidth caps and occasional throttling of heavy users, but, in general, your ISP doesn’t care what you do with your internet connection, as long as you stay within the law. Imagine, though, (and imagine it quickly before it becomes a reality) if your ISP blocked Hulu because it duplicated the functionality of (competed with) their TV service for which they had been trying to get you to sign up. No problem. Competition will fix it. It’s the free market, after all, so these problems just solve themselves thanks to all the competition… Wait. What competition? Most of the time, your cable/DSL company has a monopoly.

Luckily, we don’t have that situation (yet), except that we do in the cellphone world. Cellphone carriers, and to a lesser extent cellphone makers, control what data flows over their precious networks very closely. You can get internet on your phone, but you can’t have a teathering application, because your supposed to buy a special plan, even though you’re already paying for internet on your phone. You can’t have Google Voice, either, because the unified phone number makes it easier to switch carriers and the voicemail transcription system makes visual voicemail less important. There is, at least, a little more competition in the cellphone world, yet long contracts prevent easy switching. Besides, who would you switch too when every carrier is doing the same things?

You wouldn’t let your ISP get away with blocking Hulu, so why do we let our cell carriers dictate what we do on their networks?