Commercially, the internet started out on a pay/byte (actually pay/minute) system for most users so I don't know if such would be its death knell. There are reasons it shifted away to the way it is done now.
But even if it does go to pay/byte I'm reasonably confident that the prices would be set such that it woudln't make much difference to that vast majority of users and once it does (though increasing bandwidth requirements for the "basic" online lifestyle) prices will change to reflect that.
People freak about the caps Comcast talks about but I watch streamed movies constantly and still never come close to them. It generally takes significant constant power usage to reach the limits that get discussed.
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