Comcast (or whoever) pays for your infrastructure. (Gaming)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Monday, June 11, 2018, 05:16 (2365 days ago) @ Funkmon

No, they pay for their infrastructure.

And generally speaking, telecom operators pay for upgrades when it is projected those upgrades can be monetized, or in the face of a catastrophic failure to predict demand (although they prefer to throttle in that case).

So, if you're using it more heavily, upgrades will be needed sooner. The infrastructure is to access something free, but certain things cost Comcast infinitesimally more than other things.

One of the most essential and expensive assets to wired telecom operators are rights of way-- much like spectrum is for wireless operators. These are assets that often are public. In principle access to these assets are granted to entities in order to enable them to offer services that benefit citizens, and with that access comes reasonable regulation-- such as ensuring equal access and reasonable pricing.

What is worthy of note is that while it's always possible to get a group of citizens out to protest a cell tower, nobody seems to be around when exclusivity deals for wired operators are hammered out, and it's resulted in a classic case of regulatory capture. Local regulation of cable and telephone operators now exists primarily to enforce exclusivity arrangements to artificially raise barriers to entry, and other requirements regarding coverage and mandatory upgrades go unmet. VZW has ongoing disputes with the municipalities of Boston, New York and others over these very issues.

Net Neutrality was an essential concept to define what a company means when it says it is selling "Internet access" and to guarantee what used to be the absolute minimum standard of service-- "best effort".

In much the same way, you pay a taxi cab money to use their car for access to nominally free roads. But, if you take 3 other people, and use slightly more resources, meaning the car will have to be repaired ever so slightly sooner, the taxi cab charges a slightly higher rate.

That is literally NOT how taxis work. It is how illegal taxis work.