Time Warner Cable's new metered billing trials have carefully targeted areas where Verizon doesn't offer FiOS service, because they don't want to operate at a further competitive disadvantage in those markets. Time Warner Cable already offers slower speeds, having opted to take the casual stroll approach to upgrading their network to DOCSIS 3.0. Adding metered billing to this mix is a bad idea in any market, but it's marketing suicide in FiOS markets.

That's why Time Warner Cable chose a market like Rochester, NY to expand their trials. In Rochester, most customers (if they're lucky) have two choices, either Time Warner Cable or Frontier Communications. Frontier's not a particularly robust competitor, given our users say they struggle to provide even 6Mbps worth of connectivity, and are facing cash flow issues. Annoyed local residents are now begging Verizon for help, one local launching a website aimed at bringing FiOS to the upstate, NY city. From the site description:Rochester is proving to be quite a thorn in Time Warner Cable's side, since the city is also the home of a new website called Stop The Cap, whose arguments against the idea of metered billing are a must read. Unfortunately the city has an uphill battle, given Frontier has an exclusive telco franchise with the city. On a positive note, Time Warner Cable's plans seem to have convinced Frontier to abandon their own plans for incredibly low caps in Rochester, apparently deciding it makes more sense to try and soak up fleeing customers.

It's not clear who exactly was in charge of this latest public relations nightmare for Time Warner Cable, but they can't be having a very enjoyable week at the company's corporate offices, where insiders tell us executives are keeping a very close watch on your comments. Of course said executives could have avoided a PR problem by following Comcast's lead and imposing a high 250GB cap to catch high-concumption users, perhaps imposing lower caps and metered billing later should the market be able to bear it at a later date.

Instead, they decided to dive face first into metered billing, first unveiling the idea in Beaumont, Texas, using some underhanded tactics to get customers on board. They then decided to leak trial expansion plans via Business Week, assuming that a chatty fluff piece with Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt would be enough to convince the public that this was a good idea. Of course the public didn't buy it, given many were just starting to enjoy things like HD Netflix content streamed via their Xbox 360 -- and completely understand the company's financial lust.

You get the feeling that Time Warner Cable's back will probably bend soon, given the absolutely explosive volume of bad press. Look for some kind of announcement in the next few weeks aiming to diffuse what's become the PR equivalent of Gettysburg. You'll likely see them significantly ramp up the amount of capped usage, but cling tight to the metered billing model -- since their entire goal is to monetize the Internet video threat to their TV revenues.

<Update>: Time Warner Cable's damage control efforts arrived right on cue.