Indeed. Especially since they already leaked that certain VOIP offerings, certain IP TV channels, and in general certain streaming providers would exempt from volume restrictions. That means they'll monitor our traffic and whenever we're connecting to a partner company, everything will be fine. The bandwidth cap is only intended for, you know, the actual free internet.

They already do that in their mobile offerings. In certain plans, Spotify traffic is excluded from the monthly traffic limit

Or they can just cut germany from their services. Three days without google and facebook - the german citizens will be busy flaying alive DT officials.

Flaying alive top corporate executives and beer makes the perfect octoberfest - lots of fun for everyone and not a single human being will be harmed.

I am not sure everyone will perceive it like that.

Imagine a random, un-nerdy German, entering "www.facebook.com" into his browser, and getting a themed page, written bij Facebook, about how DT is effectively blackmailing them. Note: Facebook controls what this person sees, not DT (theoretically of course they could modify the page but I doubt they're that evil, even if they were fast enough).

If Facebook does some effort to write up a decent piece of text there, then I bet most people would root for Facebook, not DT, in this case. Especially so if the mainstream media does not explicitly appear to disagree. In fact, papers like Bild will love a healthy scandal and will likely choose Facebook's side just to blow things up. (idem for Google, of course)

Ironically (or not, and I missed your reference) random, un-nerdy Germans already fight with Youtube videos being blocked and are faced with a similar message very often [1].

I see at least two problems: the leverage that the other party actually has (GEMA, DT) and the willingness of the citizens to do something about it.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_YouTube_videos_in_G...

... On the consumer internet.

The Enterprise will exist without Net Neutrality just as it exists without the unreasonable tariffs we suffer as consumers. Google wil lhave to pay money to get around CONSUMER traffic and volume limits, but I don't think you'll see volume limits on business circuits in the foreseeable future.

I paid for a business line from Comcast even though I am residential for this very reason.

How much does that run you? Has the monthly changed much over time? For residential at least, Comcast is known to give you a sweetheart deal for the first 12 or 24 months, then balloon your monthly.

I pay for the very basic speed, 16mbps down 3mbps up. I get pretty close to that most days. It costs me a bit over $70/mo after taxes for just Internet access. Comcast does offer phone and TV bundles that include limited-time deals, but I didn't go for that and this price hasn't changed on me in 3 years. There's no monthly data cap and the connection speed is more reliable, which is why I'm happy.

I did have to pay a significant amount of money to get it set up. I don't remember exactly what the price was, but I believe it was in the neighborhood of $200 setup fee.

Now that's a ripoff that countries with monopolized market have to live with.

Where it isn't you can get 30/15 for $18/mo.

It might be a ripoff, but it's the best I can get. You learn to live with what you have. Would I like cheaper, faster Internet? Hell yes. Can I get it? Nope :(

Google is in the content distribution business. Remember their goal is "to organize all the world's information." For all intents and purposes you can simply replace information with content and their business philosophy still holds. If the ISPs get to control the pipes, then they get to decide what content is provided and how it's organized. That sets them up as a competitor with Google. I fully expect Google to not be happy about this. They may or may not strike a deal, but if they do, it will be reluctantly. Nobody wants internet providers to simply be a utility more than Google.