Startups aim to provide an alternative route to internet access via VPNs and mesh networks, amid net neutrality repeal, but their approaches are as yet unproven
From VPNs to mesh networks, efforts to find an alternative route to internet access are gaining ground in Silicon Valley Thanks: @vscpr
Context & Ripple Effects
The regulatory ground shifted twice before this story: the cancellation of the FCC's ISP privacy rules in April 2017 already pushed consumers toward VPNs, exposing their own privacy weaknesses, and the December 2017 net neutrality repeal removed the last federal backstop on how ISPs can treat traffic. Silicon Valley startups are now positioning VPNs and mesh networks as a market answer to that policy vacuum.
On the mesh side, the Motherboard and Vice project to build a Brooklyn community internet tied into the NYC mesh network showed in mid-December that non-ISP access routes can be built and documented publicly. The WSJ piece extends that from activist demonstration to startup business model — while flagging that none of these approaches is proven at scale.
First-order effects
- Startups building VPN and mesh services gain a demand tailwind from the repeal, since users who lost neutrality protections have an immediate reason to seek alternate routes.
- Consumers adopting these tools inherit known trade-offs already surfaced in prior coverage: VPNs carry their own privacy issues, and choosing a trustworthy provider remains unsolved.
Second-order effects
- Rising demand raises the stakes of the VPN trust deficit, strengthening the incentive for providers to develop industry standards rather than stay in what Slate called a Wild West phase.
- ISPs face early traffic-shifting pressure as paying customers route around them via VPNs or community meshes like the NYC network, giving carriers a reason to compete on treatment rather than rely on deregulation.
Third-order effects
- If mesh projects move from activism (Motherboard/Vice's Brooklyn build) to commercial products, internet access could begin fragmenting into layered alternatives — carrier networks plus user-operated overlays — shifting some infrastructure power toward communities and software companies.
- A maturing standards regime for VPNs would formalize a private substitute for regulation: trust enforced by industry norms where the FCC no longer sets rules.
The trend: Deregulation of US broadband is pushing internet access toward user-controlled overlays — VPNs and mesh networks — with industry self-governance filling the space regulators vacated.