At least for wired connections, data caps are utterly artificial [1].
> Network congestion arguments in this debate operate on an unsubstantiated and uncontextualized assumption of scarcity — there is only so much bandwidth, and a few people are going to use it all. Yes, some network congestion arguments have prevailed with wireless broadband because of the atmospherical and technical limitations of the medium. However, congestion is not as consequential for fixed broadband. Broadband providers reason that instead of limiting these internet “super-users” (which would be discriminatory and litigated accordingly), they need to implement data caps for all consumers, which they claim is fair and unbiased. However, scarcity is not a reality for broadband providers, even with super-users. Internet functions by “statistical multiplexing” meaning that bandwidth is dynamically allocated and reused without a limit “[u]nlike other utilities such as water, electricity, gas or oil.”
> This means that no super-user is consuming bandwidth at the expense of other users; you’re not going to receive less internet because your neighbor runs a Twitch channel, for example. Rather, super-users are simply using more internet more often, and the “super-user discount” (the fact that broadband providers aren’t able to charge them, specifically, for this “above normal” usage) angers providers more than anything else. This brings us to the real reason broadband providers apply data caps to consumers: money. Applying data caps to all of us, therefore, enables broadband providers to pat themselves on the back for devising clever “overage” fees.
As time goes on the same will become true for the majority of wireless usage, if it isn't true already.
Sending twice the data at a time doesn't cost the ISP twice the money. But large ISPs with regional monopolies continue overcharging you [2] while committing subsidy fraud [3] and subsidy obstruction [4] at every opportunity (sometimes with help from corrupt legislators [5]).
[1] https://publicknowledge.org/no-cap-the-truth-about-data-caps...
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38105873
[3] Pick any one of these links.
https://www.techdirt.com/2020/10/06/mississippi-says-att-too...
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/02/15/report-shows-comcast-con...
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/02/16/verizon-t-mobile-oversta...
[4] Pick any one of these links.
https://communitynets.org/content/monopoly-providers-mire-nt...
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/02/15/report-shows-comcast-con...
https://www.techdirt.com/2015/04/16/alec-threatens-to-sue-cr...
[5] Ditto.
https://www.techdirt.com/2021/02/19/new-bill-tries-to-ban-co...
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/04/11/illinois-missouri-and-ne...