Advocates of Internet regulation dream of a government-run utopia, but consumers have seen the yellow brick road on the other side of telecommunications law and are flocking to it. Larry Downes, a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society, made that point brilliantly in CNET commentary that painted a “Wizard of Oz” analogy:

Since [the 1996 Telecommunications Act], consumers have lived in two very different worlds. One is the land of unregulated “information services.” It includes, among other innovations, the World Wide Web, voice-over-Internet protocol telephony, wireless applications, and cloud computing. The other is the regulated world of “telecommunications services.” It consists of traditional wireline telephones, plain and simple.

It seems pretty obvious which of these two worlds consumers prefer. In Federal Communications Commission parlance, information services are governed by Title I, while telecommunications services are regulated under Title II. If U.S. communications law were “The Wizard of Oz,” Title I would be the Technicolor dream that lies over the rainbow. Title II, on the other hand, covers the bleak, black-and-white landscape of rural Kansas.

Dorothy wanted to go home after her fantastical journey through the “Wizard of Oz,” but information-age consumers have no interest in traveling back in time to the realm of telecom stagnation that occurred under Title II. And why would they? As Downes notes:

Internet access has improved in every measure [under Title I]. Data communications speeds have increased exponentially, major new technologies including fiber optics and 3G/4G wireless have emerged, and even traditional voice applications have been adapted to the nonproprietary, packet-switched protocols of TCP/IP. Consumers in all but the most remote parts of the country can choose between a variety of ISPs, including cable, wireline, wireless, and satellite providers, many of which offer bundled packages of phone, television, and Internet services.

America’s telecom landscape is nothing like Kansas anymore, and that’s a good thing.