Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, attending a conference sponsored by Sanford “He Who Loves Cable & Fat Profits” Bernstein, made it be known he still loves the concept of consumption based billing for the Internet, and what he sees as potentially fat profits that come from it.

“Clearly, we didn’t handle the public relations very well and had a bit of debacle to be honest,” said Britt.  “I still think the use-less-pay-less and use-more-pay-more model can work.”

At their prices?  Wasn’t one backlash enough for them?

Britt also repeated that their experiment in Beaumont, Texas, which they have apparently considered an appropriate test for the entire Time Warner Cable service area nationwide, was “successful.”

Meanwhile, investors don’t think the company performance has been all that successful.

Shares of TWC are declining after company Britt admitted that the company is seeing a continued slowdown in subscriber growth.

Perhaps their antagonistic policies and abusive behavior against their customers might be part of the reason.

Britt is convinced that 40GB per month, as delivered in Beaumont, was more than enough for the average user, and those who consume more should pay more.  Indeed, up to 300% more for the exact same level of service customers get today.

He dismissed notions that speed-based pricing is appropriate, claiming most customers find speeds meaningless.  Britt feels all the action, and the big profits, will come from turning a meter loose on customers and billing them for consumption of online video and other high bandwidth applications.

While Britt continues to claim that heavy users should bear the expense of upgrading Time Warner’s network, he also announced they would not be making any significant upgrades to that network, because what they have now is good enough for the next 10 years.

“I’m very comfortable with our plant,” he said. “I don’t see a need for a massive upgrade.”

In fact, the company is seeking ways to reduce their infrastructure spending further.  They plan to explore utilizing less powerful set top boxes to cut their costs, for example.

Time Warner Cable is finding the broadband component of their service offerings more and more important to customers as time passes.  For a growing number, it is the key component.  Leveraging that value, particularly in markets that aren’t as competitive, could bring massive new profits to the company.  Time Warner Cable acknowledges it has just two big competitors for broadband – Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse.  Everyone else, wireless or copper wire DSL, just don’t have that great of an impact.  Cities that have or will have fiber or AT&T’s hybrid network, will force the company to keep service levels high and prices competitive.  In markets where those competitors don’t exist, it could become a profit free-for-all, as customers will find few, if any alternatives.