These are bigger "tech hubs" than Seattle? Does not sound legit.

What would you do if all of the ISPs had 14.4k lines and you just bought that awesome 28.8k modem? They are running a business and have decided to put a cap on your rate. If other providers around you are doing the same thing, suck it up, lobby for a new uncapped plan (good luck), or start your own provider without a cap.

Make sure your website can scale properly. These days there is no excuse except for laziness. Getting slash dotted? Spin up 100 EC2 hosts for a day and load balance them. This isn't rocket science.

I always take them apart and scratch the plates, ala CD destruction. Mostly it is fun to hard drives apart and marvel at their insides, smashing/scratching them is icing on the cake.