And that's fine and dandy, but that's NOT how the telcos market their services and bandwidth (that they've bid on and purchased through federal auction). In addition to that little bait and switch, they provide pretty ridiculous "tiered" pricing that provides little or no choice.All the pricing is done based on average usage.
In a perfect, free market, I'd be able to buy whatever hardware I want and shop for the best rate for access. In a restricted market, what we get is a limited choice between hardware and providers, and almost zero choice for service access. The few providers choose competition be based on a nebulous, subjective variable, such as "quality" and NOT price.
It's a massive shell game where the consumer has almost zero protection other than through government intervention (e.g., regulations), which end up being written by the telecommunications companies. So the consumer is essentially left with their own voice and telling people to "shut up and pay for it or don't" is not a solution.