> "They can charge $10 billion per byte. You don't have to pay of course." This would be true if there was competition in the marketplace, or if the internet i

> "They can charge $10 billion per byte. You don't have to pay of course." This would be true if there was competition in the marketplace, or if the internet is a substitutable good. If Evian decided to raise the price of their bottled water to $50 a bottle, I don't have to play - there are many other brands out there. Not only that, even if all the bottled water manufacturers out there decided to price fix, I can substitute bottled water for tap water, or melted snow from my front yard, etc etc. The internet doesn't work like that - there is no easy substitute for internet access, and in modern life is downright a necessity. Exclusivity agreements with both municipal and federal governments (exclusive operating zones/bandwidth allocation) means they own a monopoly over the market. When you have a service that is a life necessity (or damn near it) and a monopoly, bad things happen.