There is absolutely no technological reason for this limit. Whereas in the past, infrastructure for roads, railroads, telegraphs, electric lines, etc., has always been extended to meet demand, major ISPs are stating that bandwidth is a precious commodity which cannot be expanded or extended. This is self-evidently false. Ergo, these data caps originate from economic concerns and skewed social values.

American success stories such as Google and Netflix would not exist without a free and open Internet. The Internet is an open landscape allowing people across the globe instant communication with each other. To in anyway limit this communication by capping the amount of data “allowed,” or by maintaining slow connection speeds for internet users, is to violate the primary purpose of the Internet: instant, global access. Obviously, instant, global access may not be capped, or the access is not instant, and since you are censored from the Big Picture, not global.

So data capping, throttling, and other forms of Internet monetization, violate the fundamental nature of the Internet (which is complete, open and transparent access), in that they restrict you from this access (which is the whole reason one uses the Internet in the first place). They are self-evidently censorship, in that they restrict one’s access from the original vision of the world wide web–which is seamless, flexible, universal access to information.

Did you know that your Internet provider may have started dictating “how much” of the Internet you may use?  Local Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Cablelynx, have started a new, little publicized billing change that results in your usage being capped–in the form of fines, throttling, or denial of services--for exceeding your allotted usage.

As a user who supports a free and open Internet, I am more than willing to pay for the service.  However, just as the DMV cannot dictate how many miles you can drive, neither should your ISP dictate how much Internet you can use.  Worse, billions in taxpayer dollars have already been spent to lay America’s next-generation fiber optic lines, which were designed to provide ample broadband to all users--an enormous internet infrastructure which ISPs like Cablelynx refuse to use.

The Internet is about world-wide access to information, but information is of little use if we cannot obtain it with free and complete access.  Having a capped Internet cannot help but hurt access to businesses and home users–particularly with today’s media bandwidth requirements growing by leaps and bounds.  This is a clear violation of Net Neutrality, and at its very worse, another potential bottleneck for the freedom of information around the world.  Who is Cablelynx and other ISPs to dictate how you use the Internet?  Please sign our petition to ask Cablelynx to return to a model of billing without caps.