Earlier this week, we reported that AT&T was planning a trial of caps and $1 per gigabyte overage fees in the Reno, Nevada market, with plans to expand the trial into one additional market before the end of the year. That means three of the five largest ISPs (AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Comcast) have either implemented caps, or are considering both caps and overage fees. What about Verizon? They've continually been very careful with their language, telling us they won't rule it out, but occasionally making the claim that caps are a solution to a cable industry problem. Verizon spent some time repeating their position to websites reporting on AT&T's new plans this week. "That's not to say it won't ever happen," A spokesperson tells Wired News. "But at the moment we have plenty of capacity and we're happy to deliver to our users as much bandwidth as they require."

But what happens if Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T all decide to make considerably more money by pursuing metered bandwidth? It's hard to think that Verizon will remain cap free simply out of good will, though it would give them a marketing advantage. It will be a fiscal decision if it happens, not a necessity. AT&T isn't considering caps because they have a bandwidth crunch from going with FTTN instead of FTTH, they simply want to make investors happy by boosting revenue, with the added bonus of making alternative video services (which not coincidentally compete with U-Verse TV) more expensive for users. AT&T has made it clear you really don't need a solid reason to want to begin charging customers more, for less -- other than you just really want to.