If I was to manage full speed downloading (which I barely even get 50% most of the time) I would go over my cap in under 3 days. I can't access 80% of my steam library because a single game can eat away my entire month of bandwidth in one download, patches over a GB for games I do own are stressful. I have to constantly manage and decide which parts and how much of the content that I basically own I want to access and I am penalized, heavily at 10$ per GB overages, for trying to access the content I own too much.
Netflix is basically a pipe dream for me, I survive on the unholy shitbox that is DVR satellite TV. Steaming music is like throwing money in the air and expecting it to dance, every second you listen to eats away your entire cap.
Did you know that 144p and below videos exist on youtube? I do.
I know that if I want to watch some HD videos online I am going to be limited to a dozen or so if I am lucky during the month. I am following a couple of games right now and projects online and I know that I have to hold off on watching video content if I want to watch the 10-20 minute videos that get released weekly.
Have you ever tried to hyper-mile a car while under the red fuel line? You know you are 80Km from the nearest gas station and the big fucking light is blinking at you already. Your asshole snaps shut with the force of a thousand suns any time your foot comes remotely close to the throttle.
That is what I experience on a daily basis but with digital content. I've grown up on highspeed internet and I consider that experience to be an integral part of the person I am today. It's taken me months to carefully adjust my habits and personal behaviors because of these insane rates, I shouldn't have to feel like I am loosing something every time I want to just browse or surf the internet.
I'm not going to be in this situation for much longer as I am finishing my schooling in the next 2 years and will be moving to a larger area, but the problem persists that outside of major hubs people are getting taken advantage of. I live 10 minutes outside of a largish city directly on the main highway into the city, every single type of cable, line etc including fiber comes within 500m of my house and I have no access to it.
The major Highways in Canada are very populated when you look at them on a large scale. Sure people like to throw around the number that 75-80% of Canada's population lives within a couple of Km from the US border but that doesn't mean everybody is in a major city, it was just convenient to do. The stretch of highway between major cities where I am holds at least 20-30% of the population in my province, and they are major areas of extremely sub-par services. The highways are already major arteries carrying this infrastructure around yet people are not allowed to tap into it and companies are not given the opportunity to expand on local markets, it's a huge mess.
The big cable companies are just sitting on those numbers and charging them ridiculously inflated rates because they are not in major cities and have 'rural designations' which in reality is horseshit and in many circumstances they would easily be able to provide higher quality services to these locations but they would have to introduce realistic pricing.