I can then choose my actual provider who will hook up at the CO (either virtually or physically), and connect me to the internet (or their service) at whatever speed we agree on. The utility part is nothing more than a long cable between me and the provider.
The provider could give me nothing more than a public IP and route to the internet, or they could give something 'value-added' like an e-mail account and content filtering. It could even be a closed non-internet service like Facebook Free Basics[0] or maybe Verizon wants to dust off the old AOL service. The thing is, as a consumer I get the choice.
That works well in theory; in practice, a lot of industries - telcom being a prime example - hacked their way around this. You can't "take your business elsewhere" when a private company owns the last-mile infrastructure your apartment is connected with. Or when your landlord decided to sign an exclusive agreement with one.
When I see residential electric/gas utilities, I see a service that pretty much always works as advertised. A service that does what it's supposed to and nothing more. No deep electromagnetic inspection to offer me "zero charge" electricity for my ACME appliances. No "smell packets" injected into the gas line the way ISP inject ads and bullshit into HTTP connections now. I don't even care much which company logo is present on my monthly bill; the total monthly savings I could make by switching providers are worth around two or three standard Starbucks lattes, at best.
The core issue is that Internet access should be a commodity. Telcos are doing everything in their power to avoid that. Like so many other companies, they forgot about the concept of "honest business", in which a customer pays them money in exchange for a valuable service, no bullshit attached.
To be fair, Verizon is pretty good to me as well, but that's probably because I'm paying $$$ for a high-end business account.
With a telco acting as part of an entrenched duopoly there is also no incentive for the provide better service or better pricing either.
Getting it without many of the tricks advertising uses to extract more money out of customers than the advertised pricing is a struggle though.
Well, played out to the full extent of electric and gas utilities, I doubt few of us actually want telecom to go the same way.
With the utility companies - you often get zero choice of which company services your home. Usually these are government sanctioned monopolies, without competition.
Yes, the government may set the maximum rates, but they can't force a utility company to actually be a "good" company. Customer service, willingness to problem solve, be flexible for customers, provide better service at the same price - let alone reduce rates, etc.
With a telco acting as a utility, over the long term, there's little incentive to provide better service... which essentially is the core issue of the Net Neutrality movement.
What we need instead, is to foster an environment in which every city has 5-6+ telco's capable of servicing every home. We need to get out of the 1-2 telco company system, and create a competitive environment in which consumers have massive choice.
The ability to leave a company and take your business elsewhere is what keeps companies performing and doing better by their customers. They offer cheaper rates, along with better service, etc.
We've seen this working to great effect in the wild. Every city Google Fiber has encroached on, suddenly saw the incumbent telco's massively upgrade service offerings at cheaper rates.
We need more competition - not government sanctioned monopolies.