Acidus wrote:

At the end of the day, Google's Davidson says that his biggest worry is not for Google but for the prospect of bringing fresh innovation to the Internet. After all, if worse comes to worst, Google can pay AT&T or BellSouth to maintain its role as the Internet's dominant search engine. But the bright young start-up with the next big innovative idea won't have that option.

This is exactly my concern.

with reference to an article previously recommended on memestreams the service provided by AT&T is not providing pipes but rather providing a marketplace (a bazaar) in that context it is perceived on both sides of the atlantic that it is philisophically legitimate to maintain the market as a level playing field eg anti-trust (monopoly legislation) insider trading legislation
innovation is the engine of capitalism and requires a level marketplace
these threats are anti free market

RE: Who really gets hurt by 'prioritization' of the Internet