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I don't understand. Don't we already pay according to the bandwidth we use on the server side, and don't clients already pay according to the bandwidth they use, everyone paying more if we use more? And don't backbones already get paid according to usage? What am I missing here? It seems like paying twice for the same product?

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That's correct.

ISPs are simply rent-extracting. The majority of the US (even in urban areas) has little or no broadband competition so there is no penalty on ISPs for double-dipping. They're hugely profitable and transit costs continue their slide toward zero. The big players are mostly refusing to expand fiber deployments.

It has nothing to do with investments in their network, the cost of providing service, or anything else. They can increase profits by squeezing the likes of Google, Apple, Netflix, etc. So they will.

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