"What happened as we're continuing to listen was we worked in some of the comments and ideas that got sent to us," Ramos said. "We came to the realization, let's do this in October."

Meanwhile, the AP has a story detailing customer pushback in Rochester, NY, another potential test zone. Although no delay has been announced for Rochester, angry customers are getting their legislators involved. Showdown!

[San Antonio Express-News, AP via Register]

The old cap scheme was pretty limited, only going up to a max of 40GB. Now they've got a whole Skittles bag of caps. Here's how Time Warner Cable's COO Landel Hobbs breaks it down, all while breaking out the familiar warning that the internet is about to die if you don't limit your porn consumption to two times a day—MAX:

Internet demand is rising at a rate that could outpace capacity within a few years. According to industry analysts, the infrastructure may not be able to accommodate the explosion of online content by 2012. This could result in Internet brownouts.

• 1GB with 768kbps downstream for $15/month with $2/GB overcharges
• 10, 20, 40 and 60GB will go with Roadrunner Lite, Basic, Standard and Turbo packages, respectively, and maintain the same pricing. Overage is $1/GB.
• 100GB will be the new Road Runner...Turbo (I'm not sure why there are two Turbo packages) which is 10Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream for $75/month. This is still an order of magnitude more restrictive than AT&T and Comcast, who have caps of 150GB and 250GB, respectively.
• A 50Mbps/5Mbps down/up speed tier is coming for $100/month when they launch DOCSIS 3.0. I'd expect this in FiOS-competitive markets first.

Overages are capped at $75 a month, meaning $150 a month gets you unlimited internet with the Turbo package—or really, you could just get a lower package and use as much as you want and pay less. The only real consideration is speed. GigaOM astutely notes that $150/month for unlimited internet is the exact amount Time Warner would need to pull in to make the same amount of money if you killed the cable box and switched to watching all of your video online—as we've long crowed that much of this is about their fear of internet video.

It's notable that Time Warner's not rolling this out anywhere Verizon has FiOS deployed—where in certain markets, for under $150 a month, you can get 50Mbps downstream and 20Mbps upstream (yes, that's more upstream than downstream in any of Time Warner's packages) and it's totally unlimited. Oh, competition, why can't you be everywhere and save the internet? I'd like to hope we don't have to rely on legislators like Eric Massa in NY to do it, since more bad than good would probably come out of the government getting involved. [Long Reply via Business Insider]

Austin, San Antonio, Rochester, NY, and Greensboro, North Carolina are the next cities to suffer Time Warner's comparatively draconian 40GB caps at the high-end—Comcast's is 250GB, AT&T's is 150GB, and all of them suck.

Every gig you overshoot your cap costs a dollar, meaning an HD movie download from iTunes could end up costing another $5 on top the $20 you're paying for the movie. Just four HD movies (assuming a conservative 5GB per flick) would swallow half of your allowed data for the month. You might wanna lay off the high def YouTube and Hulu too. Oh yes, the squeeze on high def video that doesn't come direct from your cable box is here. Actually, can I just say the internet is dead? OK. The internet is dead. [BusinessWeek - Thanks Joshua!]

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Operators are standing by, but they might not speak English. So you'd better just order this one through the website. [Hair Doctor via Tokyo Mango]

The key was in metering and charging correctly for overage, apparently, something that trials in Beaumont, Texas helped to iron out. This concept of charging penalties for going over your limit, like your cellphone provider does, works and is probably profitable, moreso than the hard-stop download caps that other providers are enforcing.

The news isn't that TW is looking at 40GB caps, which we knew earlier. The news is that they're going to be looking at potential caps higher than 40GB. In addition, there's a lower-tiered plan for people who want to use less than 5GB a month.

Time Warner's also bringing out usage trackers so people can view their current status, which means there's no surprises when you get billed for 4000GB instead of 40GB. [AP]

No one knows yet; all we do know is that TWC COO Landel Hobbs announced intentions to expand the caps to more cities this year.

Dan over at Alley Insider points out that Time Warner's strategy doesn't appear to only be about stopping hardcore pirates (which a more roomy 250GB cap, like Comcast's, is better at)-no, they appear to be going for a new revenue model in which they hit up harder-core users for overage fees. Although if they keep the bar set at 40GB, they might be sticking not just big Torrenters but mom and dad streaming Netflix Watch Instantly, too. Yippee. Don't even try this in NYC, Time Warner. [Alley Insider]

The good: The new cap is 10GB, a fairly reasonably amount for mobile data (really, that's like over 300MB a day). After you hit 10GB, your connection will be throttled down to 50kbps, just like T-Mobile's original cap plan. The bad: It will cover every phone, including the SideKick. Worse for SideKick users, their monthly data is going up to match the G1's. The supposed T-Mobile employee revealing this info also mentions "$34.99 for all you can eat (cough 10GB cap)" though it's not quite clear what he's referring to specifically.

Really, G1 users are most likely to be affected, since it's the only phone T-Mobile's got conducive to really moving that kind of data. How much data are you guys using a month on average, anyway? [Android Community Forums via Android Community]

Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.

We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers.

The point is to rollback the FCC's power: Comcast, and the rest of the ISPs and telcos, don't want the FCC to be able to tell them how to manage their networks. That order is previously uncharted territory for the FCC, and if it stands, it'll set a precedent that grants them fairly broad powers to look over the shoulder of ISPs, and effectively, a strong hand in the shaping the future of the internet.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has already responded to the suit, saying that the FCC had "put Comcast on notice" back in 2006 that it'd look into complaints about Comcast gumming up their network without properly notifying users, yet "Comcast nonetheless chose to close on that deal." For Martin, as usual, the mantra is about informing users, not so much about rules and regulations—whether or not that's just his public strategy to get the rules in place is debatable, but it is his standard script.

Who do you trust more? [Ars, Ars]

Comcast tries to ameliorate the news by putting the cap in terms even grandma can understand: 250GB = 50 million emails! 250,000 hi-res photo uploads of the grand kids! But in reality, if you're sharing your connection with roommates and downloading legitimate VOD stuff from Apple or Vudu, yet alone your torrentz, hitting 250GB in a month is not that far from reality. And now that Comcast has thrown their hat into the cap ring, it's not unlikely to assume other biggies will follow. Guhhhh.

Read more on how caps are killing us from Matt's recent Giz Explains on the topic.

[Comcast via Giga OM via DSL Reports]

Full Release and FAQs:

Announcement Regarding An Amendment to Our Acceptable Use Policy

It's no secret we've been evaluating a specific monthly data usage or bandwidth threshold for our Comcast High-Speed Internet residential customers for some time. Rumors circulated online last year and they popped up again in May.

In January, we added new frequently asked questions about what we consider acceptable use of our service to our online Help site www.comcast.net/help and Security Channel page www.comcast.net/security.

We've listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive. Today, we're announcing that beginning on October 1, 2008, we will amend our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) available at http://www.comcast.net/terms/use/ and establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month per account for all residential customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of data, much more than a typical residential customer uses on a monthly basis. Currently, the median monthly data usage by our residential customers is approximately 2 - 3 GB. To put 250 GB of monthly usage in perspective, a customer would have to do any one of the following:

* Send 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email)
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)
* Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)
* Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)

This is the same system we have in place today. The only difference is that we will now provide a limit by which a customer may be contacted. As part of our pre-existing policy, we will continue to contact the top users of our high-speed Internet service and ask them to curb their usage. If a customer uses more than 250 GB and is one of the top users of our service, he or she may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use. At that time, we'll tell them exactly how much data per month they had used. We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily.

As stated above the new monthly data usage threshold will officially take effect starting October 1st. We are notifying customers in a number of ways. For example, we have posted a preview of the amended AUP as a PDF on this page. We are also running banner notices on our Comcast.net home page and on our Security Channel Web page to alert customers about this upcoming change. In addition, we have provided a number of FAQs that are available at http://help.comcast.net/content/faq/Frequently-Asked-Questions-about-Excessive-Use. Finally, we will also notify our customers directly by including an insert (also called a bill stuffer) in an upcoming monthly billing statement.

What is Comcast's approach to Excessive Use?

Comcast has an excessive use program to provide a high-quality service for all of its customers. The company uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards. Comcast maintains an Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") located at http://www.comcast.net/terms/use/ for its Comcast High-Speed Internet Service customers. The AUP discloses what constitutes unaccpetable conduct and uses of the service. The AUP includes requirements regarding data usage that all Comcast customers and users of the service must follow.

Comcast determines excessive usage in relation to typical residential uses of its service. The company does so in order to identify truly excessive use while not impacting the vast majority of Comcast customers - more than 99% - who use the service as intended.

Does Comcast use a monthly data usage threshold to determine excessive use?

Comcast will initiate a 250 GB monthly data usage threshold for all residential Comcast High-Speed Internet accounts. This threshold will be in place to provide a clear definition of what would constitute as excessive use of the service.

The new monthly data usage threshold will go into effect starting October 1, 2008.

Why is Comcast going to provide a monthly data usage threshold for its residential high-speed Internet users?

Comcast has been evaluating a monthly data usage threshold for quite some time and it has heard from high-speed Internet customers who have asked that it provide a specific number for excessive use. By providing a specific monthly data usage threshold, Comcast hopes to provide more clarification to its customers about what would qualify as excessive use.

When will the 250 GB monthly data usage threshold be put into effect?

Comcast will initiate the 250 GB monthly data usage threshold starting October 1, 2008.

What will happen if a customer exceeds 250 GB of data usage in a month?

The vast majority - more than 99% - of Comcast customers will not be impacted by a 250 GB monthly bandwidth or data usage threshold. If a customer exceeds more than 250 GB and is one of the heaviest data users who consume the most data on our high-speed Internet service, he or she may receive a call from Comcast's Customer Security Assurance ("CSA") group to notify them of excessive use. At that time, Comcast will tell the customer exactly how much data per month he or she had used.

If a customer surpasses 250 GB and is one of the top users of the service for a second time within a six-month timeframe, his or her service will be subject to termination for one year. After the one year period expires, the customer may resume service by subscribing to a service plan appropriate to his or her needs.

Will all customers who exceed 250 GB of data usage in a month be identified as excessive users?

Yes, Comcast is setting 250 GB as the residential data usage threshold for excessive use. Customers who exceed 250 GB and are among the top users of Comcast's high-speed Internet service may get contacted by Comcast about their excessive use.

Under the setup, Comcast claims it will figure out "in nearly real time'' who's causing congestion and if "in fact a person is generating enough packets that they're the ones creating that situation, we will manage that consumer for the overall good of all of our consumers,'' says Mitch Bowling, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager of online services.

The real time comment is interesting, because Comcast said the same thing about their targeted P2P slowdown technique, calling it "surgical" in its precision, but FCC Chair Kevin Martin said that wasn't true and that their system was "not even capable of knowing when an individual ... segment of the network is congested." So let's hope they've upgraded.

Either way, all indications show that this is likely just a first step toward overall usage caps, which appear to be an inevitability. What that means for the future of the internet is still unclear, but for now, heavy downloaders or people living in crowded houses might wanna look at alternate ISPs (if they're even able to). [Bloomberg via All Things D, Image via Biscuitsmlp]

Kinda interesting, since their own metered broadband plan is rumored to run up to 250GB (read why metered broadband is bad). Has anyone else gotten hit with the hammer at a lower rate of usage like Ace here? Tell us, we wanna know (or any other Comcast dirt, please send it to tips@gizmodo.com)! [Thanks Ace! - Giz's Comcast Coverage]

This might seem like an odd topic for Giz Explains, our weekly "WTF is that?" series, but a bunch of comments last week revealed a need to plainly explain the tussle going on between internet service providers, the Federal Communications Commission, content providers and you, and how it's shaping the way you'll use internet over the next couple of years. First, a quick primer.

Comcast was caught slowing down BitTorrent traffic last year by the Associated Press. It (re)sparked cries for government-mandated net neutrality—treating all internet traffic equally, whether it's email, Skype or a bootleg of The Dark Knight over torrent. While that didn't happen, a complaint against Comcast went through the FCC, which ruled against it last week, saying that slowing down BitTorrent was a naughty thing to do, and that they must disclose all management practices to subscribers.

In the meantime, a different network management trend started to emerge among the major ISPs: metered broadband, aka data caps. It's like dial-up service or wireless data: After reaching your alotted amount of data for the month, you pay extra, maybe through the nose, as our northern neighbors in Canada are familiar with. Conveniently, it's "net neutral," since it doesn't discriminate against particular kinds of traffic, and it's fully disclosed to subscribers so it satisfies guidelines discussed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. In case you're looking to file a complaint, Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Fred Von Lohmann told us, "There's certainly nothing to stop them from pricing that way if they want to."

Time Warner was the first major to float the plan, which is currently in testing, with a 40GB cap at the high-end. Comcast is considering a metered approach as well, its spokesman has confirmed. AT&T is the most recent major ISP to jump onboard, and it'll be testing caps in the fall. Not to mention Cox Cable and a whole mess of regional ISPs already implement them.

Here's the rub: The P2P apps ISPs point to as pillaging their networks are increasingly a nonexistant bogeyman. Video is now the actual bandwidth monster, and it's only getting hungrier and hungrier.

The thing about all that video is that it competes with what your ISP is probably delivering to your other screen in the living room. Why watch 30 Rock on your couch at specific time when you can grab it on demand on your laptop with Hulu, or on a Netflix Roku box? That awesome Vudu box you bought? Pulling in Transformers in HD uses your cable provider's pipes, but it doesn't see a dime from the transaction.

Suppose you decide to be pseudo-green and opt for an all-digital approach from Vudu or Apple TV, and you have a moderate habit of two movies a week. A 90-minute movie running at a constant bitrate of 2.5 megabits per second (you're talking HD here) will swallow 1.69 GB. If you've got a 40GB cap, eight movies will eat over a quarter of it. And that's just your rental habit, with today's specs. The 1080p flicks they'll be streaming tomorrow will be even more bandwidth intensive.

More importantly, today's geek frontier is tomorrow's mainstream playground. Like game demos on Xbox Live? Or games-for-purchase on Steam? Those are a gig or two a pop, and as more and more games are distributed digitally, the gigs will add up. Which is also part of the problem as far as the ISPs are concerned: AT&T's tech chief glibly notes that "traffic on our backbone is growing 60 percent per year, but our revenue is not."

While I wanted to tell you that data caps will destroy the internet as we know it, really video is what's actually facing the greatest threat. Time Warner has openly said content providers can't have it both ways. And the EFF's von Lohmann told us that while he hasn't "seen any evidence that [metered broadband] will radically change the internet" he is "worried that companies that have their own video they're delivering over the same pipe they deliver internet service will have an incentive to reduce caps" and it's a "valid concern worth watching." It would effectively have us paying twice for video delivered over the internet. Most people can barely stand paying for it once.

It is more or less accepted that a minority of users use disproportionate of bandwidth, but what they're using it for is changing. It's increasingly video, not BitTorrent. The whole pro-BitTorrent thing is a smokescreen, because BitTorrent is less and less of an issue—video, and increasingly, HD video will be the real one. (Along with any number of other increasingly bandwidth-intensive apps.) And it'll be more and more competitive with providers' TV offerings—we've already seen Time Warner cry about it. But there's no legitimate way to block it and protect their content.

They can, however, make it more expensive for you to download with bandwidth caps (which is conveniently net neutral). And that's what I think this is partially about—protecting their TV business, not just curbing voracious bandwidth appetites. Regardless of the motivations, it's definitely coming. Comcast's tests will probably start soon, Time Warner's are already underway and regional ISPs have been doing it for a while. It's looking very much like the future of broadband here.

At least if we're using it less maybe the internet won't explode now. [Wired]

A spokesperson for the cable company said that excessive use qualifies as anybody who downloads "30,000 songs, 250,000 pictures, or 13 million emails in a month." Since it's hard to quantify emails and pictures in terms of size, we'll have to judge by songs, which are usually about 3MB to 5MB depending on how high it's encoded.

But Comcast doesn't actually tell people exactly what this cap is, leading users to sit in fear of whether or not they'll go over and be booted. Although it's mostly heavy BitTorrent users who have been subject to this, the rise of ABC, NBC, Amazon, iTunes and NetFlix video services has put regular people who really enjoy TV into the same group as well. [Gamdaily via Kotaku]

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