What big ISPs don't want you to know about data caps

If you buy 10 gallons of gas, you should pay more than the person who buys just five gallons, right? That's the argument Comcast and AT&T make as they impose data caps on more and more broadband customers. People today use much more data than ever before, they say, and it's only fair that folks who use more data pay more.

But there's a flaw in that argument. "The cost of increasing [broadband] capacity has declined much faster than the increase in data traffic," says Dane Jasper, CEO of Sonic, an independent ISP based in Santa Rosa, Calif.