In my opinion, the best argument that there is no need for a data cap is to look at usenet providers. They provide some if the fastest connections I've ever seen, for dirt cheap prices, throwing in VPN and cloud storage type services, always unlimited in data, for around 20 to 30 bucks depending on what package you want.
And I'll bet they are plenty profitable. Plus, they don't get some of the niceties that the larger isp's are getting. For example I've heard NetFlix essentially pays all the transit fees right up to Comcasts doormat, so Comcast actually pays nothing other than the cost to shove the bits around it's own very large LAN. I'm sure Amazon and YouTube and google as well as any company of substantial bandwidth use has transit deals like this in place.
It seems to me the ISP's have it pretty easy when you factor all that in.
Personally, I'm pretty bummed that the company that was to bring country wide access via spectrum that was close to GPS got held up in legacy nonsense. I think they were called LightSquared. Honestly, if GPS manufacturers made crappy gear that leaked into a frequency they assumed no one would use, that is their problem, not LightSquared's. That's like building a shopping center and letting a portion of it overlap into an empty lot. A few years later the lot owner comes into town and says "WTF yo!" And somehow he is told "too bad, we were here first and it would hurt our sales".
And I'll bet they are plenty profitable. Plus, they don't get some of the niceties that the larger isp's are getting. For example I've heard NetFlix essentially pays all the transit fees right up to Comcasts doormat, so Comcast actually pays nothing other than the cost to shove the bits around it's own very large LAN. I'm sure Amazon and YouTube and google as well as any company of substantial bandwidth use has transit deals like this in place.
It seems to me the ISP's have it pretty easy when you factor all that in.
Personally, I'm pretty bummed that the company that was to bring country wide access via spectrum that was close to GPS got held up in legacy nonsense. I think they were called LightSquared. Honestly, if GPS manufacturers made crappy gear that leaked into a frequency they assumed no one would use, that is their problem, not LightSquared's. That's like building a shopping center and letting a portion of it overlap into an empty lot. A few years later the lot owner comes into town and says "WTF yo!" And somehow he is told "too bad, we were here first and it would hurt our sales".