It is a fear tactic often used by U.S. based telcos. It's not new by any means.
They have been saying this from the get go. In the 90's Clinton Administration gave the telcos a ton of money to build an internet as fast as Japan, and some other countries that were outpacing the U.S..
The telcos instead pocketed the money, and never invested in what that money was for. Instead they engaged in a lot of deceptive, and shady business practices to wipe out their competition that was going on in the late 90's and early 2000's snuffing out the Choice One's and other companies that were competition with them for data and land lines.
Almost 10 years later we are back to the monoliths, and "Bells" that make up less that a handful of the major telcoms, and communication conglomerates, or cartel, that are constantly crying wolf to get more money or they will cut back services.
This game has been going on for some time now, and despite the sabre rattling, the U.S. continues to fall behind other countries in cell phone and telco technology and broadband speeds. In the end it is little more than capitalism, and corporate greed at work.
There were thousands of miles of fiber laid back in the late 90's and early 2000's from those companies that went out of business during the dot com bubble. There was, at that time, so much data and black fiber laid that they had said something like only 10% was being used. So I doubt that there is going to be any cutting off of the net anytime soon.
However, corporate America and telcoms will keep playing that game until they get their staggered service option where they can charge more for usage, or more government money for investment in the network.
