If I want a natural gas line, one company probably provides the infrastructure, even if there are multiple vendors for service. Ditto electricity.
For Internet service, there is dial-up, DSL, cable, local wireless dish, satellite dish, cell-based. It is no longer a natural monopoly like a true utility is.
There is a finite amount of signal room. It is a scarce commodity. And it doesn’t “belong” to comcast or verizon. It belongs to me. And you.
The original broadcast networks still make a boatload of money by NOT charging people for what belongs to us. They’re allowed to sell ads, not access. Nobody has a problem with the FCC preventing CBS from charging anyone with an antenna for using its signal.
How is oversight of the net companies any different? They DON’T OWN the broadband. They are renters. The people are the landlords.
The price of using what belongs to the people, whether it’s the tunnel under your street or the water pipes leading to your house, or the broadband, is oversight by the owners — the people of the United States.