• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 2, 2009

As promised, Comcast is making available bandwidth meters that will allow subscribers to see how much bandwidth they consume each month. For now, the meters are only available to subscribers in Portland, Ore. on a trial basis.

Comcast caps bandwidth usage at 250 GB a month, but most consumers currently use far less. The company says that median customers use between 2 and 4 GB of data per month and that 99% of subscribers don't come close to the cap.

But consumption is bound to go up as people increasingly download video, and as broadband speeds increase. In fact, it's not hard to imagine that a 250GB cap will one day be laughably inadequate.

At the same time, cable companies like Comcast have an obvious incentive to discourage online video consumption: If people can watch programs for free on Hulu, why would they pay for cable TV subscriptions?

One way of curbing cord-cutting is by imposing low bandwidth caps or charging for metered access. So far, efforts of Internet service providers to do so have met with significant consumer pushback. Earlier this year, Time Warner had to retreat from a plan to extend pay-per-byte pricing to four new markets. That proposal would have required customers to pay $150 per month for unlimited broadband access, up from the $40-$50 a month they currently pay.

Metered billing or bandwidth caps wouldn't be troubling in themselves if there was more competition among ISPs. But many people only have a choice of two broadband connections -- a cable modem or DSL line. Given the dearth of options, and the logistical difficulties associated with changing providers, a decision by a cable company to triple the cost of Web access could effectively hinder many people's ability to use the Internet.

Obviously if Comcast and other ISPs impose bandwidth caps, the companies should make it possible for people to know how much they're consuming. To that extent, Comcast's latest move isn't in itself harmful.

But consumer advocates are nonetheless suspicious of the company's end-game. "A tool to monitor Internet usage could be used to lay the groundwork for metered pricing -- which can massively overcharge consumers and deter innovation online," Free Press policy director Ben Scott said in a statement. "With the launch of TV Everywhere looming and a Comcast-NBC merger in the works we should be especially wary of a company setting the stage to gauge consumer's Internet usage. Will the online video content owned by others set the meter running while Comcast's programming doesn't?"