cnn.com has a huge write-up I'll try and find it. In the mean time basically in europe they sell you an internet connection cheaper than here. It seems faster cause you're the only one using it.
In America what happens is they sell 50+ people the same "connection" which is why all the numbers you see are "best effort". They basically bouble-book your connection and pray to God that enough people don't log on at the same time that they get blocked out.
With the advent of streaming video people are no longer sending intermitent packets, they are streaming video. If you view a web page you send a few packets for a few sec and that's it. With streaming video you clog up the lines the entire time you watch.
We can both view ATNT from the same connection without noticing because the packets send so fast neither one of us blocks the other person. If we both try to watch video, however, we would both slow down. (think trying to DL porn and play video games, they both go slow).
Basicall what happened was the internet companies got caught with their pants down and now they are having to expand their networks to put less people per line and their profits are suffering.
So what they want to do is say "It'll be $100/mo for a T1 line. If you host a web page that's an extra $40. If you send news feeds that's another $40. If you send video, well you need a "special line" and that's another $200."
The problem is they haven't been honest with how the internet works. If we actually got a full DSL line when we paid for the internet this wouldn't be a problem. Instead you share "your connection" with over 50 other people which is why sometimes the internet is slow "for no reason".
The internet providers are arguing that to keep our costs down they need to do this which makes sense. the money to build extra connections has to come from somewhere.
The problem though, is that their proposed "solution" is actually more expensive than just running more lines. To build the 2-tier system they will spend even MORE money. This is where the conspiracy theories about them using it to block videos they don't want etc etc. Hope that helps.
