When I was in university, I shared a house with a bunch of friends, we paid for 30Mbps, then I set up a router with nice cache system, QoS and all that stuff.
Most of the days we used around 100GB+, our isp called sometimes (two months interval more or less) to say that we hit our monthly data cap (which was 320GB), we got used to saying "ok, so cancel my plan, we are going to another ISP that don't put cap on our data usage" and then they continued the conversation saying that "this month we will not reduce our speed, but next time they would have to, unless you upgrade your plan", "no, thanks".
Since they were a new provider in the region, guess that the infrastructure were more than enough to sustain our use, and I was really surprised that the same excuse worked for around two years (then I graduated, don't know how it's now).
Given the nature of ISPs, networks and 95th percentile billing, a rational ISP would have advised you to keep it down between the hours of X and Y on days A through B.
At least one ISP around here offers unlimited data, but at reduced mbps during peak times. I can understand their plan, trying to maximize their resources without trying to break the laws of physics.
If only others would maximize their available resources. Since they aren't, it's (even more) clear that the caps are arbitrary and serve only to maintain video distribution monopolies.
Most of the days we used around 100GB+, our isp called sometimes (two months interval more or less) to say that we hit our monthly data cap (which was 320GB), we got used to saying "ok, so cancel my plan, we are going to another ISP that don't put cap on our data usage" and then they continued the conversation saying that "this month we will not reduce our speed, but next time they would have to, unless you upgrade your plan", "no, thanks".
Since they were a new provider in the region, guess that the infrastructure were more than enough to sustain our use, and I was really surprised that the same excuse worked for around two years (then I graduated, don't know how it's now).