Time Warner testing bandwidth cap

This is just plain crazy and quite frankly anti-American. Time Warner Links Web Prices With Usage:

NEW YORK (AP) — Time Warner Cable will experiment with a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging customers based on how much data they download, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

The company, the second-largest cable provider in the United States, will start a trial in Beaumont, Texas, in which it will sell new Internet customers tiered levels of service based on how much data they download per month, rather than the usual fixed-price packages with unlimited downloads.

It is always surprising when a company takes a page from the government playbook of waiting until someone is dependent on a service and then tax the crap out of it.  Oh wait, this isn’t a tax, it is consumer choice! What a sack of crap!!  Hey Time Warner here’s an idea for you, why don’t you try innovating your product first and then charge appropriately for the service.  Crazy? I know.  Really though, shouldn’t this have been the first step followed by the current unlimited bandwidth we now currently enjoy?  I thankfully don’t live in an area serviced by Time Warner but I fear that if this plan succeeds all providers will adopt the same model, so if you do currently have TW, please call and air your frustration.