For the past 15 years, the Internet has been an amazing all-you-can eat buffet. Not only have Internet access plans offered unlimited usage but the proliferation of free online services has thrived because there have been no concerns about how much bandwidth is being used.

The salad days, I’m afraid, look like they’re about to be a thing of the past. As consumers use more online services and, in turn, more data, ISPs providers smell money; a lot of money. To them, broadband services is the razor; the razor blade is the data that consumers need to satisfy their need to access online applications, games, video, telephony, storage, music, etc. According to someone on Twitter, ISPs are charging $1/GB of extra data – something that costs them one cent/GB.

The more that things move into the cloud, the more data we use and need. The cable and telephone companies have taken a long time to act on the new data reality but that’s about to change. Consumers should get ready for tiered services not so much based on speed but on data consumption. If you want to use online services, just be prepared to pay for the privilege. And boy you will pay because once ISPs have their hooks into data, they will squeeze this golden goose as hard and often as they can.

In Canada, ISPs have been playing this game with broadband access for the past decade. There’s no competition so prices keep going up. It’s a far cry from the sweet days of dial-up when there were hundreds of ISPs battling it out on price and customer service. Today, there are limited options so if you want broadband service, you pay for it.

The question facing consumers is whether they’re going to accept bandwidth caps without a fight. It’s important to remember that free and unlimited access to the Internet has been a key principle of its growth. The idea of actually paying for bandwidth AND access was never part of the mix. If ISPs are allowed to make bandwidth caps stick, the danger is innovation will be neutered because consumers will think twice about using new, high-data services.

It’s bad enough that there isn’t more incentives by the federal government to have more broadband competition. But the idea that bandwidth caps could become part of the landscape is troubling for a lot of reasons. My fear is bandwidth caps are here to stay. ISPs love them because it is another major source of revenue, particularly among telephone companies who have seen their local telephone business erode over the past five years.

So what are we going to do, take it on the data chin or fight?

More: If we’re looking for a friend to fight bandwidth caps, NetFlix looks like they’re gearing for major battle.