Comparing IP Transport with... Oil

Oddly enough, in the recent spike in gasoline prices across the nation, my mind wandered to the dependencies that converged networks rely on for "unified communication." I recently explored a facet of this issue in my post, Throughout Every Layer (http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26576). However, we as users of public IP networks utilize the vast array of network peering resources and transports to build our networks upon. As mentioned before, except for the minuscule percent of infrastructure that we actually own, we have very little control over what happens from Point A to Point B.

If I recall correctly, the debate about "toll-boothing" advanced services such as IP-telephony and IP-video came into play several years ago after such applications and use of IP networks became popular. Now, as most major bandwidth and transport providers have complied with their customers' wishes, we don't pay "extra" for such traffic. Data is data, right?

It seems as though our service providers hold a certain threat over us, ready to pull out the carpet from underneath us at any time. It's as simple as making a simple ACL change, and requiring users to pay extra for telephony, video, etc. over IP. Even the proposed filtering of VPN traffic has come into question.

Frankly, we've been lucky that federal legislation has protected the customer against such outrageous money-making schemes, but how long can it hold off before the big businesses win? As our nation's lawmakers have no control over big oil, will they soon lose control over "big telecom" as well?