After his company won approval of its bankruptcy plan this week, Charter Communications CEO Neil Smit tells Bloomberg that upon exiting from bankruptcy, the company will raise prices and consider consumption-based billing. Charter Communications hasn't been profitable since the company went public in 1999, posted a $2.45 billion loss last year, constantly ranks at the bottom of most customer satisfaction surveys, is swimming in debt, and was just forced into bankruptcy and reorganization. Of course these problems were caused by poor management, not flat-rate broadband pricing -- a model that's been perfectly profitable for most ISPs. Despite Charter's constant failings, Smit himself was paid $7.4 million in cash compensation for 2008, and remains one of the highest paid executives in St. Louis. Perhaps he'll volunteer a fresh pay cut in addition to socking his customers with higher prices? For the team?

Back in September we noted how it seems like only a matter of time before Verizon engaged in metered broadband billing. After Time Warner Cable's PR implosion, most ISPs are in a holding pattern on the idea until they can sell consumers on it, something they haven't done a good job of so far.

Given the high costs of deploying fiber to the home, we're starting to see new models emerge whereby if customers really want it, they can share the cost of having it installed (one Norwegian ISP gives a $400 rebate if you dig your own fiber trench). Now Utopia, the nation's largest municipal fiber deployment, is testing a new model whereby communities who want the fiber deployed can share the cost of installation. As more Utah cities look to connect to Utopia but debate how they should pay for it, Brigham City has decided that if users want fiber they can pay for it themselves. 1,600 local residents have already ponied up $3,000 a piece, helping the city install a $5.5 million network while the city itself only puts up about $700,000 of the required cost.

Verizon suffered from quite a bloody third quarter when it came to DSL numbers, the company losing 135,000 DSL customers -- and only a portion of those having upgraded to the company's FiOS service. To help counter these DSL losses Verizon keeps tinkering with their DSL promotions, and yesterday rolled out a new one. According to a Verizon press release, new Verizon 1 Mbps, 3 Mbps or 7 Mbps DSL customers can get service free for six months if they're willing to sign a one year contract with the company. FiOS customers should note the company has also slightly tweaked their FiOS promotions depending on where you live.

Whether it comes to triple play broadband or wireless service, pricing plans are often designed to give the illusion of value -- instead of the real thing. Bundle plans are often designed to prevent direct comparisons with a competitor's service, and plans are almost always designed to get you to pay more money than you'd like.

Back in June, Virgin Mobile announced a new wireless broadband service dubbed "Broadband2Go." Broadband2Go operates over Sprint's EVDO network, offering users the choice of buying pay-as-you-go cards in 100MB ($10), 250MB ($20), 500MB ($40) and 1GB ($60) increments. Not only are those not particularly impressive prices -- given Sprint itself offers 5GB of connectivity for $60 -- but Virgin Mobile puts an expiration date on the cards. While these caps are downright silly, such connections are marginally useful from a convenience perspective, assuming you don't have a 3G connection or can't find a (usually free) Wi-Fi hotspot. According to an announcement today, those of you not put off by the pricing can get the service from over 1,000 Best Buy Mobile stores, over 4,300 Radio Shack stores, Sam's Club kiosks via Radio Shack, Walmart.com and Target.com as of December 1, 2009.

Cox Communications is informing Louisiana customers that they'll be raising both TV and broadband prices this fall. According to The Advocate, basic cable customers will be seeing a price hike of $2.58 per month, and those who subscribe to expanded basic will pay another $3 per month. Premium services like HBO and Showtime will also be seeing $1 hikes. Cox customers on starter, value, preferred or premier broadband tiers can also expect rate hikes of between $2 and $3 a month. The hikes are occurring in Lafayette, despite the added competition in the market from the local municipal fiber deployment Cox tried so very hard to derail.

Verizon today announced that the company is offering three new prepaid wireless broadband price plans, aimed at users who only need occasional access to Verizon's EVDO network while on a trip or vacation, really like to pay an arm and a leg for data, or just really, really hate long-term contracts. To use these new prepackaged bits, you'll of course need to buy the Verizon Wireless USB760 modem for $129.99.

According to a leaked memo posted over at the Boy Genius Report, Verizon is preparing to double the early termination fee for customers who buy new smartphones via Verizon. According to the memo, customers after November 15 who buy an "advanced device" (smartphones) can expect to pay a $350 ETF, though that total will decrease $10 a month every month a user's under contract. The BGR surmises that the change is to stop people from flipping subsidized smartphones over at eBay, though you can also be sure Verizon's forced migration to open devices and platforms has them eager to make up some of that lost revenue in other places.

Earlier this week we noted how Verizon's quarterly subscriber additions for their fiber to the home FiOS service were lower than anticipated. The company added 191,000 new FiOS subs on the quarter, down from the 300,000 added in the second quarter.

There's several broadband subscriber perks that have gone the way of the dodo in recent years. The most notable of course is free access to Usenet, but many ISPs have also done away with offering users free dial-up connectivity for travel or during outages. We know Cox is still offering it, but several Time Warner Cable and Road Runner customers write in to note the company this week is e-mailing its customers saying that they're no longer going to get free dial-up access starting November 30. With the availability of so much free Wi-Fi (much of it now being offered by carriers) it's apparently seen as an added, unnecessary expense. Is your ISP still offering it?

Yesterday we highlighted how a common flaw in the argument for metered billing is that it confuses pure per-byte billing with what carriers actually want to implement -- which is usually value-limited tiers with high base prices, low caps and high overage limits. The push really is all about already profitable companies looking to raise prices ahead of the Internet video explosion, something that's often disingenuously dressed up as altruism or fairness. Thankfully, we're starting to see some of our colleagues in the sector notice this, like Stacey Higginbotham over at GigaOM, who correctly observes that "when ISPs talk about meters they're talking about different service tiers that don't reflect actual usage, but herd customers into set plans where most will be paying a monthly fee for more than they use." It's a simple but important distinction.

Cablevision is joining the cable rate hike season festivities by increasing TV prices an average of 3.7% in 2010 for its 3.1 million customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Cablevision tries to ease the pain by telling reporters (Multichannel News, Dow Jones) that they haven't raised broadband or VoIP prices for seven consecutive years, and that the rate hikes are less than the 21% increase Verizon implemented for its legacy FiOS TV Premier Package earlier this month -- if that makes you feel any better. On a related note, Cablevision-owned Newsday later this month will be among a handful of news outlets to start charging customers for online news, but only if you aren't a Cablevision subscriber.

As part of their "project dark" campaign aimed at improving their U.S. competitive fortunes, T-Mobile has unveiled a slew of new pricing plans. The plans, which don't seem remotely as fascinating as some leaks had suggested, are broken down into two-year contract "More Plus" plans, and contract-free "Even More Plus" plans. There's various pricing depending on minutes or services, but the key "Even More" plan offers unlimited talk, texts and web for $99.99, while biggest "Even More Plus" plan offers the same thing, without a contract, for $79.99. Why is the non-contract price cheaper? Because under "Even More Plus" plans, you pay less for service but you pay full purchase price for a handset.

Comcast and Verizon have spent much of the last two years bickering over who offers the most HD channels or video on demand "options." Despite being just as guilty as every other carrier in regards to artificially inflating HD numbers (and in reality having a lower HD count than most carriers), Comcast doesn't like Verizon's tendency to count cutesy instructional VOD videos (like how to fold a towel) as "choices" in advertisements for their VOD catalog. Verizon in turn doesn't like Comcast ads that point this out.

Wisconsin-based TDS Telecom (see our user reviews) today announced that the company will soon launch 50 Mbps downstream and 20 upstream upstream fiber service in Monticello, Minnesota. According to the company, the service will cost customers $64.95/month when bundled with local phone service.

Sure, heavy wireless broadband users might call it pure madness, but there are some smartphone users out there who like to ditch the 3G data plan and simply use free Wi-Fi when it's available. To stop this utter insanity (well ok, to further bloat already plump revenues), Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T have decided to make $30 data plans for smart phones mandatory. AT&T only recently joined this party. The Consumerist noting how AT&T's deadline for ditching your 3G plan has been extended to October 31, but you'll need the following: story continues..

Despite the recession and the fact AT&T should want more people using their landline service, the baby bell is raising landline prices in California some 20%, according to the Mercury News. AT&T and Verizon convinced California lawmakers to erode consumer price caps over the last few years, promising lawmakers the result would be lower prices. AT&T says the price hikes, which will hit about half of California residents, are simply being adjusted to "market levels." "There's nothing in the economy or the cost of providing phone service that would justify a 22 percent increase," said Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog.

David Lazarus at the LA Times explored the issue in detail last year, noting how since 2006 when California started lifting price controls, AT&T has increased the average price of three-minute daytime local calls by 34%, evening calls by 92% and nighttime and weekend calls by 233%. Call waiting has gotten 86% more expensive, while even the charge not to have your name printed in the phone book went up 346%.

As expected given their investment into Clearwire and Sprint's Mobile WiMax joint venture, Time Warner Cable today announced plans to offer wireless broadband service. The service is going to be launched December first in the so-called North Carolina Triangle -- Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill -- as well as in Charlotte and Greensboro.

While ISPs (and the investors who love them) would like the public to believe that metered billing is inevitable, not everybody in the industry agrees. Ed Gubbins over at Telephony Online takes an interesting detour from the traditional pro-metered position of most loyal trade magazines, talking to industry vendors who don't see per-byte billing as the end all be all of broadband.