Broadband Rationing as a Competitive Weapon?

On Internet video application Joost from NewTeeVee's Jackson West today...

The fundamental problem that Joost faces is the fact that the broadband available to North American households simply isn’t fast enough for them to provide image quality comparable to digital cable or satellite, much less high-definition video....

...My concern is that with DSL provider AT&T moving into IPTV, and cable Internet providers already delivering video, what little competition there is in America for consumer broadband providers, any incentive to increase speeds (especially the upstream bandwidth) could hit a wall of corporate self-interest. After all, why should companies like Comcast offer the kind of high speed broadband enjoyed in Europe and Asia when it would simply enable companies like Joost to compete with the company’s own digital video offerings?

Of course, with the generous assumption that broadband speeds are eventually going to increase enough one way or another, a Comcast could also look at the flip side of the equation and buy a Joost to extend its platform to the Internet.