I think perhaps we ought to be paying attention to what may be happening with internet service north of our border, as it could very well happen here in the US of A. Bell Canada is apparently not only converting their customers to “metered internet usage”, but forcing their competing ISPs (who buy bandwidth from Bell Canada) to also do the same with their customers — thus conveniently eliminating any competition. In addition to “metered internet usage” Bell Canada is also apparently throttling the traffic of so-called ‘network abusers.’
– A metered internet – on the way in Canada? (p2pnet)
– Bell Canada: Traffic Throttling Mark II (p2pnet)
Unfortunately, things aren’t all that great here (south of Canada, that is). Scientific American published an article last month titled “Why Broadband Service in the U.S. Is So Awful”. It pretty much places the blame on the FCC boo-boo in 2002 where they reclassified broadband internet service as an “information service” rather than a “telecommunications service,” thus stifling competition.
Oh well… not to worry! (yeah right….)