Data Caps... the FCCs' gonna "talk about it"

[Maxmars]

I don't know how much interest there is here about this subject, but since it is "on the radar" of the FCC, maybe we should talk about it too.

From ARSTechinca: Please ban data caps, Internet users tell FCC
Subtitled: FCC docket draws anger at ISPs and mockery of Republican's data/coffee analogy.

Before I enter the fray, I want to point out an unfortunately stupid and telling analogy by an industry-supporting politician....

Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington last week argued that regulating data caps would be akin to mandating free coffee refills:

Suppose we were a different FCC, the Federal Coffee Commission, and rather than regulating the price of coffee (which we have vowed not to do), we instead implement a regulation whereby consumers are entitled to free refills on their coffees. What effects might follow? Well, I predict three things could happen: either cafés stop serving small coffees, or cafés charge a lot more for small coffees, or cafés charge a little more for all coffees.

Were I an advising consultant of the commissioner, I would have slapped him on the back of the head immediately after the utterance.

1. Why not just admit that you are subject to lobbying control, and a puppet mouthpiece for their interest?
   
2. Our "vow" not to mandate the prices that ISPs set, was always contingent on their practices being 'reasonable' as ALL such "vows" are.  No one should get a 'free ride' to set prices like this.
   
3. Please don't 'volunteer' your idiocy... ISPs are NOT going to simply stop services if they don't "get their way." 
   

Of course, the industry allies are all hard at work to create a narrative featuring service providers operating in the manner of monopolies (every capitalists wet-dream.)

It started with justifying "throttling," as if data were a measurable physical object, rather than a virtual concept... now they fight to squeeze internet users like 'subjects' of their great largesse.

What's next... a mandatory "gratitude" requirement? "Users must pay and be grateful."