Cable companies are also capping, so, there is really no more such thing as unlimited.
There's still fiber and DSL based ISPs.
And, whether they all jump off the same cliff like lemmings or not, caps are stupid. That was shown to be a faulty model in the mid 90's, and it will continue to be a faulty model.
The model that works is speed limiting. Sell customers the speed you can afford to provide them, at a price that is sustainable. The fact that the HSPA protocol might be capable of 7.2MBps is irrelevant if you don't have the backbone to maintain it for all customers, and aren't charging the rate that makes it profitable.
The intelligent thing to do is sell speeds tiers (instead of protocol tiers, like "web only" vs "total internet"), charge the fair rate for those tiers, and then limit people to the speeds you're selling them. Something like:
$5/mo for 256KBps/128KBps (download/upload)
$10/mo for 512KBps/256KBps
$15/mo for 1MBps/256KBps
$20/mo for 1.5MBps/256KBps
$25/mo for 2MBps/256KBps
With language like: those are maximum rates, in congested areas, remote areas, or depending upon distance from your cell tower, you might get lower throughput.
Those seem to me like reasonable plans. Not "$25/mo where YOU have to manage your bandwidth use ... or we'll cut you off and maybe terminate your contract if you use too much". Nor "$6/mo, but only for some internet access".
For one, managing bandwidth use is the ISPs burden, not mine. If I go over the instantaneously sustainable rate for the ISP, then that's the ISPs fault, not mine. If I use more bandwidth than the ISP can sustain, that's also the ISPs fault, not mine. These are solved problems, and maintaining everything on the ISP's side of the connection is the ISPs burden, not mine.
If comcast wants people to not use more than 800KBps (what their cap works out to), then that's what they should do: set a rate limit of 800KBps. Not threaten their customers with termination if they exceed some gross monthly limit. Same for cell carriers: set a per second rate limit, and quit your whining, ill-founded accusations, and straw-man arguments (about how "you can't possibly use that much doing legal/resonable things in 1 month!" ... BS).
