Last October we received early word that cable operator Suddenlink was going to start capping users and charging overages, a leaked memo highlighting that the effort was only "equitable." After apparently needing some time to get their billing and metering systems in order, Suddenlink started imposing the limits on all users this past Spring. An e-mail sent out to users informs them that to "further enhance your experience, a monthly usage allowance will be put into place for all residential (non-business) Suddenlink Internet accounts" starting sometime later this month.

You can just spend a few minutes perusing our Suddenlink forums for a quick look at how Suddenlink's efforts are going. There are countless threads popping up where users say their ISP-provided usage meter doesn't match their router logs, or that they were billed for over-usage at times when they weren't even home. More than a few users are complaining that the company has even been consuming numerous gigabytes of data during times when they had no power whatsoever due to storms:Suddenlink certainly isn't alone when it comes to failing to monitor customer usage accurately. It's getting boring to repeat but it needs repeating: ISPs want to bill like utilities but they refuse to be regulated like them with meters checked for accuracy. Regulators in the Canada and United States remain completely unconcerned that ISPs imposed what are in many cases dramatic new usage-driven price hikes -- but are failing to monitor usage accurately. The result is users being over-billed or billed incorrectly, and nobody in government or the press seems to care too much about it.