What about an idea of throttling. I currently pay for a 10 gigabit connection. If they actually *need* to reduce consumption then what about having a limited 'turbo' 10 gigabit bandwidth, and an unlimited 'standard' ~400 kilobit bandwidth connection.
This isn't a standard utility that requires that the company providing the service must generate a physical product to sell. Energy must be generated, gas must be refined, water must be collected, we understand this, we respect this. They are physically measurable commodities.
Transferring information over a network, however, is a fixed cost. It doesn't cost any more to transfer 5 gigabytes than it does to transfer 50 gigabytes. What costs is the size of the bandwidth pipe - because while how much data you transfer in an hour doesn't cost any more or less - the speed at which you can transfer it does because it depends on the bandwidth of the network nodes you're connected to, the capacity of the lines you're connected through, and how many other people are streaming information on the network at the same time you are.
That's why we pay for our bandwidth and not for how much we download. So if this isn't just some stunt to extort money from consumers and they're really dealing with bandwidth shortages, then they need to reduce their bandwidth offerings, offer a greater range of bandwidth options and pricing, or let the consumer buy high bandwidth with fixed limits with a low-bandwidth fallback when you run out.
It just makes sense on both ends.
Just my $0.02
-Saidge