Why do we pay ISPs for internet speed, but mobile network operators for the amount of transferred data?
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there are more bottlenecks in a mobile (radio) network, due both to technology and cost and available radio spectrum (a lot of it is used for other stuff already, a lot of it just isn’t suitable for high data rates)
There are physical limits on how much data (to and from all users at once) can be handled on the set of frequencies the networks are allowed to use.
Those bottle necks do improve over time, as smaller cells, or better ways to squash and encode data are developed but it’s a much more lumpy or punctuated process of evolution than say just sticking a fatter internet pipe, or more pipes in the ground.
If you want to introduce a new way of squashing data onto a radio signal, as well as updating the backbone you need to get every phone or device manufacturer on board and ready for a new standard as well as continue to run older networks alongside newer ones for everyone’s existing devices, still using the same set of frequencies and capacities… gradually phasing from one standard to another over time… If you want to use different frequencies, you need to get multiple nation states and goverments to agree which is a massive pain in the bum to do and takes time.
basically mobile networks have a different priority because they have harder limits on resources (bandwidth).
in reality both networks are constantly improving speed and capacity and both have caps, the caps are just more visible for mobile networks because of the physics of radio.
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