As some ISPs got bigger, they were able to negotiate peering agreements instead of paid service since it was in both party's best interest. A could bill B $10k/mo for service and B could bill A $10k/mo for service and in the end it was a wash. This makes sense too. Once this happened your bill largely reflected the cost of the last mile, since the transit was now free. Bandwidth has gotten cheaper.
What we're seeing now is that some ISPs have gotten so big that instead of paying transit providers for access to the greater internet, or simply getting free peering, they're charging others for peering to them. How are they able to do this? They have an effective monopoly on their customers and they're "leveraging" this to get even more money. Now my monthly fee goes to pay for the last mile, and someone else also has to pay for the last mile. Am I getting a discount? No. Bandwidth isn't getting cheaper, but the last mile is getting paid for twice. Is the last mile getting faster? Also no.
So this feels very much like a monopoly abusing their position of power to get extra money.
