The cost of transferring each bit is exponentially decreasing as network equipment tracks Moore's law. Their costs are going down, not up.
What this is really about is damaging competitors to their cable TV operations. Wail about Netflix using a lot of bandwidth, never mind that the cost of providing that bandwidth is falling as fast as the demand for it is rising, and you can put on a good show for the regulators as to why you need to destroy Netflix and push everybody back onto U-verse and cable TV.
That depends entirely on whether you see bandwidth costs as revenue or an expense. For many of these companies it's both, but generally they make most their money from consumers, and in that case it's an expense (to the degree it's got an ongoing price at all, given peering arrangements).
Not if you judge by the telcos' profitability.
The cost of transferring each bit is exponentially decreasing as network equipment tracks Moore's law. Their costs are going down, not up.
What this is really about is damaging competitors to their cable TV operations. Wail about Netflix using a lot of bandwidth, never mind that the cost of providing that bandwidth is falling as fast as the demand for it is rising, and you can put on a good show for the regulators as to why you need to destroy Netflix and push everybody back onto U-verse and cable TV.