I had been thinking that if Comcast and Cox were going to be implementing caps and overage charges, it would be the perfect opportunity for the baby bells to take a page out of the old Pacific Bell playbook and bring these ads back from the dead. But with AT&T over the weekend admitting they're considering usage-based billing, and Qwest probably not far off (they already boot bandwidth hogs), that leaves just Verizon and their FTTH network with the competitive advantage.

"We don't have caps today and haven't announced any plans to have them." -Verizon

Unlike Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Qwest, Verizon hasn't been shy about investing in next-generation architecture. Will they use a generally unimpeded FTTH network for leverage or will they join the cap and overage trial crowd? They're not showing their hand. "We don't have caps today and haven't announced any plans to have them," Verizon's Bobbi Henson tells me.

She hinted that Verizon liked Time Warner Cable's plans, at least in terms of transparency. "Time Warner is doing the right thing thing by letting customers know how much they can use and how much more they'll pay if they use more," says Henson. "That's fair," she opines. "What's not fair is having a mystery limit that customers do not clearly understand."

Henson was careful with her language not to rule out either caps or overage fees down the line. She also wouldn't admit that not having such measures could prove to be a competitive advantage. "Whether other providers have caps or not, our competitive advantage is that we deliver services over the nation's most advanced fiber optic network, straight to customers' homes," says Henson.

But Verizon has said in time that they'll eventually employ the over-subscription model, so what happens down the road when Verizon's network becomes a little less roomy? I'd guess, with FiOSTV revenue to protect, Verizon, like many ISPs, will be watching other trials with great interest. If consumer outrage is muted and defecting customers are minimal (and so far I see many of your cheering the idea), I imagine they'll be following the crowd.