Kevin linked me to an article this evening that tells how Time Warner Cable will start testing Internet billing based on usage. WTF? Now, when I go to the Time Warner Cable homepage the first thing I see pop up across the screen is “We think like you think”. Uhm…no, no I don’t think you do Time Warner, because if you did you wouldn’t jack up my monthly price every year, you wouldn’t nickle & dime me to death, and you wouldn’t make me wait for DAYS to get a technician out to my house to look at a problem.

The second largest U.S. cable operator said it will test consumption-based billing with subscribers in Beaumont, Texas later this year as a part of a strategy to help reduce congestion of its network by a minority of consumers who pay the same monthly fee as light users.

The company believes the billing system will impact only heavy users, who account for around 5 percent of all customers but typically use more than half of the total network bandwidth, according to a company spokesman.

Slowing network congestion due to downloading of large media files such as video is a growing problem for Time Warner Cable. The company said the problem will worsen as video downloading becomes more popular.

Hm. So rather than fixing their network to be able to handle the traffic, they find it to be a better decision to just charge people more. Sadly, I’m screwed stuck with Time Warner Cable because they are the only provider available in the area that I live in. Hopefully Grande Communications, AT&T, Verizon….ANY OTHER PROVIDER will be coming to my neighborhood soon.

What about the idea of billing per usage to those who sit in front of their televisions 24/7? Or those who stay on the telephone longer than your typical teenage daughter? How will this amazing screwed up idea affect those who work online more than they sleep?

Check out the article and share your views.