As it turns out, Time Warner’s proposed download caps for test markets around the country won’t prevent users from unlimited downloads after all. They’ll just have to pay several times more for the privilege than they used to.
Time Warner COO Landel Hobbs clarified the company’s trials in a post explaining both the necessity behind the move to metered Internet access, and what the new tiered structure would look like. According to Hobbs, the company is already scrambling to meet demand for data that increases 40 percent every year, and if a new structure isn’t implemented, customers could face “Internet brownouts” when the network finally reaches capacity.

