[big_chungus]

That's kind of a big statement to make without support. What do you mean "viewed as a utility"? What policy or economic outcomes would result from that? Remember, utilities aren't perfect either; they're still monopolies and still bad. Because they're government-regulated, there often ends up being even more cronyism than a regular oligopoly. I at least have two options for internet where I live; I have one for gas. It's practical (if extremely capex-intensive) to pull more internet fiber; it's not really practical to create another gas distribution network. Heck, I get pretty good FTTH gigabit symmetric from one of the "big guy" ISPs, and it's not nearly as pricey as I expected. It's also a little different because the marginal cost of an additional BTU is much higher than that of an additional gigabyte of data transferred. Not non-existent, but pretty small.