Then, in 1996, America Online opened the floodgates by introducing a monthly flat rate instead of charging by the hour.

CNN: The good ol' days of AOL chat rooms

Stuck for now with flat-rate monthly billing, CTM and DSL providers are throttling down speeds to control the traffic they must carry through their long-haul networks.

CNN: OPINION: The push is on to deploy high-speed, always-on residential Internet access

Flat-rate monthly billing is to blame.

CNN: OPINION: The push is on to deploy high-speed, always-on residential Internet access