Time Warner Cable shelves broadband usage billing

Time Warner Cable said on Thursday it would shelve plans to test a system that bills customers for the amount of broadband bandwidth they use instead of at a flat fee to access the Internet from home after an uproar from consumer groups and politicians. Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Glenn Britt said the company would not go ahead with its plans for additional tests of the billing system until it has consulted more with customers and other parties. Time Warner Cable said it was working to make measurement tools available "as quickly as possible" to help customers understand how much bandwidth they use. Sen Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced his own opposition to the plan, then spoke with Britt about the "overwhelming opposition" to the caps. Citizens of Rochester (NY) were furious about the caps about to be imposed on them, with Schumer's office describing the reaction as "outrage." Frontier Communications, whose DSL broadband service competes with Time Warner Cable's modems in Rochester, shelved its own plans to introduce metered billing. Timothy Karr, campaign director of Free Press, said, "We're glad to see Time Warner Cable's price-gouging scheme collapse in the face of consumer opposition. Let this be a lesson to other Internet service providers looking to head down a similar path. Consumers are not going to stand idly by as companies try to squeeze their use of the Internet. This is a major victory, but the fight for a fast, open and affordable Internet is far from over."