Heaviest users of Web face limits on 'unlimited' -- chicagotribune.comFor as long as consumers have had high-speed Internet at home, they have surfed the Web as much as they wanted, downloading any content while paying their service provider a flat monthly fee.
Those days may be ending.
Internet service providers, especially cable companies, are eyeing new pricing models to address the rapidly growing popularity of such applications as streaming online video and the sharing of large files. These programs can eat up bandwidth and cause bottlenecks, slowing service across networks. Companies such as Comcast and Time Warner also fear becoming a "dumb pipe"—providing the conduit for data-intensive Internet activity but not managing the flow or making any money from it.
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