Of course they are. They're incentivized to do so. Bandwidth is a scarce resource, and they're often the only seller for a given market. The more demand, the m

Of course they are. They're incentivized to do so. Bandwidth is a scarce resource, and they're often the only seller for a given market. The more demand, the more the market will bear for that resource. The more contentious and oversubscribed their infrastructure, the more likely they are to make seemingly-convincing arguments for rent-seeking (Internet "fast-lanes"), deregulation (because competition lowers prices), and consolidation (more efficiency drives down prices), all of which they can leverage to increase profit while holding prices steady -- or raising them -- due to further-increasing demand. Building and maintaining increased capacity increases their expenses and lowers the value of their product. Why in the world would they invest? It would be the stupidest possible thing for a telco to do. edit: it's worth my noting that my basis for asserting ever-increasing demand is that of induced demand for network services