Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett believes that AT&T's plan to implement monthly usage caps on its DSL customers, and charge overage fees to those who violate those terms, could provide "air cover" for major cable MSOs to do the same.
Moffett wrote in a research note that he believes that the first MSOs to introduce pricing plans with caps for low end packages and overage surcharges will be Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable, with Comcast "the least likely to move in the short term."
Moffett added that AT&T's "move is good news for all the terrestrial broadband operators."
Charter's CEO Mike Lovett, said that the MSO was looking at establishing a usage-based pricing plan to attract dial up users to its DOCSIS-based broadband service.
"I think there is an opportunity to look at usage-based pricing not necessarily at the high end but at the low end, to create some attractive price points that are tied to usage to bring folks out of the dial-up experience," Lovett said last month during a call with financial analysts earlier this month.
For more:
- Multichannel News has this article
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