YES. I posted about this, it is a common misconception of what net neutrality will mean. I believe everyone needs to be prepared for (much?) higher bills because the cable companies will rely more on data caps to get what they would have by charging companies for speed access. And there will probably be more reliance on tiers of service, more affordable will equal higher data caps. Add new taxes and or fees imposed by the Government.
Uh, no.
While some of the streaming providers would have paid "bribes" to the ISP's to get preferential treatment, that would have come at the cost of slowing down everybody else.
And once you monetize bandwidth, parasites would be jumping in to charge you for content specific access.
Imagine this, it's not much of a stretch.
Right now, you pay for Cable TV by getting a bundle you can't pick and choose from.
THEN you start adding Premium content.
HBO, etc. And every time they withhold something you want, you have to pay more to get it back.
So, imagine how that would apply to the Internet once bandwidth was monetized.
You'd have your access, for a fee.
But you'd pay MORE if you wanted to download videos at speeds faster than molasses in January.
After all, you're bidding against NetFlix for that Bandwidth, and they have deep pockets.
And you might end up seeing content broken up by type.
$5.99 a month to get fast downloads from YouTube.
$5.99 a month to get your news from sites with video streaming.
$5.99 a month to do video chat.
$5.99 a month to SSH into your workplace computers.
In short, what we get now for a Flat Fee, we'd end up paying for.
That's why the Net Neutrality decision was so vital. It preserves the Internet as it is, free and open no matter who you are.
Your argument is that the Cable companies will be frustrated that they lost the opportunity rip people off, and I won't deny they were drooling at the prospect.
But with the Internet regulated as a public utility, such efforts will be stifled.
If they start capping downloads, competition will enter into the equation and people will go shopping elsewhere.
"Add new taxes and or fees imposed by the Government"
Oh, good, fearmongering. We needed more of that.
It reminds me of the mythical "email tax" that the Postal Service was supposedly going to charge... fifteen years ago?
If the Government adds taxes or fees... and I don't know why they would... people can VOTE and get the attention of their Representatives.
It's the Corporations we can't deal with; once they get a "local monopoly" on the cable line, consumers have little recourse.
For example, ComCast service stops 1/2 mile from my house and it's been that way for years.
There's another seven houses in that half mile, but they won't extend the cable.
We were stuck in dialup up until this March when the Power Company is going to install Fiber Optic.