[leot]

The conspiracy isn't particularly hidden -- this is just rational behavior by large ISPs. Like every producer of a service, the telcos don't want to see their product commoditized and subject to pure competition, and they are doing all they can to delay this.

The motivation for a company to want deregulation cannot be to increase market competition for their own product. To the extent that they claim otherwise they are being dishonest.

What a company/industry might honestly claim is that regulation will prevent the development of valuable markets, satisfying neither producers nor consumers. This is an empirical claim, however, that stands on evidence rather than ideology. And we have only to look to the countries with faster internet to see whether it holds.