Putting a Meter on the Computer for Internet Use

In Beaumont (TX), Time Warner offers broadband plans with limits between 5 gigabytes and 40 gigabytes, amounts a spokesman estimated would cover 95 percent of their customers. What Time Warner is experimenting with in Beaumont may very well be the way phone companies and cable companies sell Internet service in the future. The company says it is not fair for average users to subsidize heavy users. The Federal Communications Commission recently voted to forbid Comcast to slow the service of its most voracious customers. Customers are reacting like patients whose doctor has put them on a strict diet. Some are looking for tools to restrain their Internet use; others are hoping to find another doctor with a more liberal attitude toward vanilla Swiss almond ice cream and prime rib. Some Internet service providers say they want to end their all-you-can-eat plans because a few customers with immense appetites for Web content are overwhelming the networks and slowing the delivery of news and entertainment for everyone else. Other providers blame pirates, who program their computers to crawl the Internet and suck down complete copies of CDs or DVDs.