Net neutrality

What does net neutrality mean to you? The concept is new to me, as I've ony just discovered one view of what it means. It fascinates me. I've never even considered that Big Business could take over this wonderful free-flow between peers that we call the web.

The would-be usurpers of the net are the providers of the hardware network itself. They control who gets access, and how much. Therefore, they can control everything. I wonder if there's a way to bypass this existing hardwired network and the companies that control it.

I'm thinking of all the airport/wi-fi signals I get from the buildings around me. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could create a network that operated on everyone's home wireless router? The individual owners would be responsible for their node, and there would be no corporation to control the whole thing. With the proliferation of wireless connections, there would be areas with massive redundancy. Of course, there would also be HUGE areas with no coverage at all. But it's a start What if we boost the wi-fi range just a little, and create a protocol that allows internet style networking over the overlapping wi-fi nodes...

Just random brainstorming here. Anyone have any ideas?