I’m still getting over the shock of learning this morning that once again, Rochester NY is going to be ground zero over a major broadband usage cap nightmare. After spending a large part of last summer battling Frontier’s ludicrous 5GB usage cap, which they have suspended implementing, at least temporarily, I get the news that Time Warner is about to devastate this, and three other communities, with the same kind of outrageous bandwidth capping they’ve dropped onto the good people of Beaumont, Texas.

Coming later this summer, according to an article in Business Week magazine, Time Warner will introduce usage caps similar to what is in place in Beaumont. For the average Time Warner customer in Rochester, Greensboro, North Carolina, and Austin and San Antonio, Texas, this means standard service customers paying $40 a month will be limited to 20GB per month, those paying $54.95 a month are limited to 40GB per month. Exceed that at your financial peril – overage fees are $1 per gigabyte.

You don’t need this, and I sure don’t need this. If you review this site, you’ll read the whole sordid history of just how outrageous of a gouge on customers this represents. It’s rank profiteering, not “cost sharing” as their marketing people like to put it. For my western New York city and hometown of Rochester, this is absolutely devastating to our competitiveness and image as a high tech city in the ever-struggling western half of this state.

While upstate and downstate cities from Buffalo to the suburbs of Long Island will escape cap free (for now) because of the aggressive development of Verizon’s FIOS network, Rochester is stuck with the dreary and uninspired Frontier Communications with a DSL product that can never come close to hoping to compete on an even keel with Road Runner, yet had the nerve to try cell-phone like usage caps on their customers last year.

With competitors like that, Time Warner can do whatever they please in Rochester. Frontier again has an opening for marketing gold to drop the idea of usage caps and run an ad blitz telling Road Runner customers they’ll never have to worry whether they can watch Hulu, or play someone else online, or download something from iTunes, because they are not going to throw a draconian cap in your face. The stampede exiting Time Warner would be a sight to see. Frontier can bring themselves a massive new customer base. Alas, I have little confidence Frontier is that inspired. Perhaps they can prove me wrong.

Barring that, Frontier will foolishly bring back their own crazy cap and stick Rochester in the broadband doghouse for years and years. When Penn Yan has unlimited FIOS and Pittsford has a father yelling at his son his five minutes of Internet time is up because of the cap and the cost for exceeding it, we’ll all be down the rabbit hole.

One thing is certain, I cannot fight this battle alone. I am going to need article writers, folks to help organize people not only in Rochester but in the other affected cities, as well as outside help from those who may not have the cap today, but soon might tomorrow.

Broadband policy in this country cannot be allowed to deteriorate into de facto duopolies which ration access at ridiculous prices. Consumption based Internet access only works and is justified when the mark-up is nowhere close to the prices Time Warner and other companies want to charge. A better policy recognizes that no cable company or telephone company has gone broke with their current pricing model. To the contrary. Investments bring profits. Enhancing your existing service with add-ons like Road Runner Turbo is a quick and easy way to bring an extra $10 a month and make everyone happy. Heck, I’d suggest a whole lot of moderate users of Road Runner would rather see an across the board $5 rate increase than these kinds of caps. Or at least the potential of a rationally priced unlimited plan offering, which is simply not available with these kinds of usage caps.

Today’s announcement from Time Warner is a broadband game changer akin to a category five hurricane for many online users. It’s literally the end of things like Apple TV, Slingbox, Netflix’s set top box, and even frequent viewings from Hulu and other future video providers. The bandwidth allowances just make using those products and services untenable. And it only gets worse if you’ve got a family with computers around the house. Those are just more chances you’ll exceed the cap.

The Pearl Harbor moment from this company today brings a day of shock, surprise, and contemplating your options, if any. Tomorrow it brings anger, conviction, and organization to make a difference and send a message that no company can be allowed to get away with this sort of thing. I hope you’ll join the fight.