At BCE Inc.'s annual analyst event, the sticky issue of net neutrality was raised during a Q&A. Kevin Crull, who heads up Bell Canada's residential business, made it pretty clear that Bell like many carriers in North American struggling to deal with the loss of loss phone service is exploring the idea of downstream fees and/or QoS charges. Crull's explanation, which sounds much like what many telecom executives are pitching, is that Bell will "pursue ways to monetize its massive investment that we are making" in its high-speed network. The counter-argument is that consumers are the ones who have paid to build the network over the years, and Bell already monetizes its investment by charging high-speed access fees, which by the way it's raising by $2 a month to $46.95. (By the way, Bell had a booth at the conference promoting 12Mbps residential service for all you gamers out there). While there are no regulations to prevent Bell from hitting service providers with downstream tollgate fees, Bell COO George Cope (who has become the Canadian telecom industry's champion of disciplined, profitable growth) made it clear demand for high-speed is growing and Bell is very well  positioned given it owns one of the two big pipes to the home. One would think that would give Bell enough of an economic rush without attacking net neutrality. That said, it could easily happen if Bell can convince Rogers, Telus and Shaw to go along with the idea. If they present a united front, it will be an easier sell from a political,business and consumer perspective. All you really need is a savvy marketer and some connections in Ottawa to convince everyone that net neutrality isn't disappearing, it's just evolving.