Sorry but that's not true, it is special because it can do things a large profit-maximizing ISP can't. It can give free internet to schools and libraries, it can give subsidized rates to lower income neighborhoods, it also brings control of the ISP under democratic control.
By removing from it the need to be an entity seeking to extract maximum profits, a whole host of other things can be done.
In support of my argument, I present: co-op and not-for-profit.
More broadly, since I wrote more than one sentence, my point was that the dominant factor in bringing down prices and bringing up reliability of service is having multiple viable options available.
I never made a claim that there are no other differences attributable to organizational structure, though I do see one might misinterpret in that way.
They spend tons of money on advertising etc so they just end up acting exactly like a forprofit corporation except they can say they're a co-op and market themselves as "a little bit yours" because you can pay like $20 a year or something and "own" it.
I'm convinced there's a bunch of forprofits siphoning off the profits somehow. Just like with charities, they find ways to extract that cash flow. Slurping it up like black gold.
I don't disagree with anything you said.
The existence of non profits or coops is irrelevant to the original claim. Although I'm fully in support of those also.