ISPs: Resistance (to metered Internet access) is futile

Last year Time Warner began an experiment in which it planned to no longer charge its Internet access customers a flat monthly rate for all the data they could eat but instead a sort of tiered system, where customers who went over explicit download caps would face surcharges and other added fees.

The experiment was a disaster, with consumers, the press, public interest groups, and even legislators decrying the setup as a way for Time Warner to gets its grubby hands on more money. Time Warner eventually conceded, saying it was a "debacle" and that it "lost a public relations battle," per Wired, and that it would have to continue to "educate" consumers about the merits of tiered pricing while it retrenched.

Now, nearly two years after TWC's first foray into the pay-as-you-go pool, the idea is roaring back to life, with big ISPs saying that the dramatic growth in the amount of web traffic they have to process is forcing their hand. (Blame those movie downloaders, they invariably say.)

Credit the recent federal push for "net neutrality" for spurring the revitalized prospects for metered Internet pricing. With feds mandating that all net traffic be treated equally, ISPs may make a play that metered broadband is the only way to maintain profitability while keeping web access up and running.

And so it seems that might be where we're headed. AT&T has had better luck than Time Warner in two city-based trials where it's offering six different tiers of Internet access. And perhaps AT&T's strategy is more intelligent than what TWC was attempting: Customers can pick a configuration ranging from a $20, 20GB-a-month/0.8Mbps bare-bones plan to a $65, 150GB-a-month/18Mbps premium one. Go over your bandwidth cap and you pay $1 per extra GB you suck down.

The numbers don't look horrible at first glance, although the caps seem awfully low. The real problem is that, like most users, I really have no idea how much bandwidth I use in a month. I know it's under the semi-advertised 250GB limit Comcast puts on its customers, but is it less than 60GB, which is what my $30 would get me from AT&T? I really don't know.

I do know that the inevitable is probably going to happen and not in the distant future: One way or another, we're all going to pay more for Internet access. Whether it's metered access or simple price hikes for the service we're already using, either way we're going to get it in the end.