Re: Why do the cable companies
Wrong. Internet service is not like groceries or gasoline or electricity. Multiple credible studies around the world have shown, over and over, that the incremental cost to the ISP for delivering a gigabit of data is almost nothing. Less that a penny. The basic fee charged to users covers 99.99% of the cost to the ISP--including a tidy profit. This is the $40 or $50 or $60 a month you pay for the basic service. That everybody up and down the street and in every apartment pays -every- month. The difference being for faster speed--which does cost the ISP and does have value. Charging for gigabytes is a complete rip-off.
The Comcast CEO has publicly stated (to his INVESTORS' CONFERENCE) that he predicts everybody in the US will be paying for capped and metered internet in the next 5 years. Comcast's current fee structure (which they have "suspended" but which is on the record) is to charge $10 per 50 Gigabytes over a cap, or 2.5 cents per gigabit. That is something like a FIVE HUNDRED PERCENT PROFIT--for a regulated monopoly!
This is what monopolies have done, throughout history: Create artificial scarcity to keep and raise high prices and to innovate as little as possible. They have NO INCENTIVE to innovate. Except in billing systems.
Cable system monopolies have also spoken publicly to advertising conferences on the great things they are doing and plan to do in tailored, targeted advertising over their cables, and what a great platform they have to do even more wonderful things. WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING IN THIS BUSINESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. The monopoly franchises they have been awarded across the US are supposed to be for installing wires and servers in neighborhoods and apartment blocks. Period. Not be in the TV business or the "targeted advertising" business or in the metered internet business. They want to cap and meter service, throttle and block competitors, and set up toll booths for competitors. Believe me, Comcast wants to put Netflix out of business real soon: Watch for ComcastFlix, coming through a cable near you real soon. And not for $9 a month... Comcast already owns NBC, Universal Studios, Bravo, E! Network, USA Network and MORE, so ComcastFlix will have content which is totally free to them to use--NO COST, JUST PROFIT.
This thing has got to be stopped. If your like freedom of choice, and hate unfair taxes (Comcast will be levying new "TAXES" on everybody--users and content providers--as soon as they possibly can) you have to speak up. This is the biggest rip-off in US history. And that's not hyperbole.