High-Speed Highway Robbery?

I meant to get to this a few days ago, but it got lost in the whirlwind days since we took the blog public. Time Warner Cable will begin offering a new pricing structure in which high-speed Internet customers will be charged varying rates depending on how much they download each month. Apparently, Comcast and Cox are also looking into this tiered system.

This strikes me as crazy since Netflix and Apple and Blockbuster want us to be downloading HD movies and large files all over the place. Since these companies have a tendency to screw these things up, my guess is if they implemented this nationwide, it would be a colossal disaster. Good thing they're testing things out in Beaumont, Texas first. That represents what would happen in a large city.

This plan reminds of the push toward a la carte cable. The idea sounds great at first, but it almost definitely won't lead to the promised savings for the consumer.