Sorry Scott, the argument doesn't hold up. In fact your argument fails so strongly that the FCC ruled on this issue and fined VZN a meager $1.25mil, that carriers cannot interfere with or block customers from using their mobile devices. So really what you're paying for is data that you already have. What if you were to pay for using the GPS function on your phone a la carte or any other feature. Want Bluetooth? No problem! For just $1.99 extra per month we'll go ahead and activate it on your phone!
On the contrary what VZN is doing is making you pay for the very data that you're already paying for...a second time. Now if it was an app that they charged me for $30 one time...no problem, happy to invest in it just as I did when I purchased FoxFi and previously SVTP on my Gnex. But your logic...is actually not logical at all. In fact if you look around the world, we're the ONLY country to have such restrictions as having to pay an extra $360 per year to use the very data that's already on our phone!
Check the facts my friend before you go ponying up the extra cash. Oh and the reason that VZN can't block the access? Well that was part of the deal to which Verizon and others actually agreed to as part of getting additional bandwidth on the spectrum. Remember that whole thing of some frequencies coming up for sale and the deal they struck? I'm guessing that might have slipped your mind somewhere down the line as time has passed