So I will admit, I wasn't there, and your perspective is definitely appreciated.
However what you have said, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is essentially that AT&T is the devil,
Pretty much. Too much bureaucracy to ever innovate........still thinks it has a monopoly. GTE, excuse me, Verizon, is just as bad.
the FCC does exactly what AT&T always wants,
No, they used to be a force for competition, albeit with a muddled idea what competition really was. Now, they are just a bunch of political hacks, at the behest of whatever whatever the latest "social justice"
cause du jour is.
Remember how they took both the low- and high-band VHF channels away? In order to bring free broadband, to everyone. (And for real cheap!) That idea has seemed to have fallen in a crack. They have already given the high-band VHF channels back to some TV stations. Haven't talked to anyone involved in that, for at least a year, but that whole idea is a mess. Gubbament being gubbament. Although someone seemed to get gubbament money in the deal. (Word is a demoncract supporter runs the recipient.)
so leave it all alone because there is no way the FCC will do anything to benefit the consumer. Never mind the temper tantrum AT&T threw when the possibility of being classified as Title II was brought up earlier in the week.
They won't leave it alone, because the FCC wants supreme power over the 'Net, to promote "social justice". AT&T will throw a tantrum, and will get some regulatory concession, which will have the end effect of giving them more monopoly, so they will shut up and go away.
It will be promoted as "Net Neutrality". But it will be just another bait-and-switch gubbament power grab. Both sides will find a way to satisfy each other, to the detriment of the consumer, and true freedom of the 'Net.
Fine, as I've already said, I've been convinced. Abolish the FCC, drive AT&T and Verizon trucks up to Ft. Knox and just give them all the money and cut out the middleman.
They won't abolish the FCC. AT&T, Verizon, and maybe 2 cable companies will eventually control everything. We will all get screwed: from the regulatory end and the provider end. Prices will go up. You will have less choices. And Uncle Sugar will end up taxing the daylights out of e-commerce (because too many small fish do it), to finance what their next social justice mission is. (Think rural telephone service which became O'Dumbo phones.)