Unlike me, TWC has cash at its disposal and is offering $50 for information on Google’s fiber deployment, according to the poster a tipster sent me after a visit to the Time Warner offices in Kansas City. Which implies that Time Warner is concerned enough about the potential competitive threat that Google’s deployment represents to suss out all the details it can.

I can’t blame it. I’m pretty eager for tips on Google’s fiber deployment myself.

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Charter also has one, which leaves Cablevision, Verizon and Time Warner Cable as question marks. However, Verizon’s Dick Lynch has explored the possibility of wireline data caps, and judging by comments from Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt earlier this month, some kind of consumption-based broadband pricing is coming. When asked about caps directly a Time Warner Cable spokesman said the company didn’t have “anything to announce now regarding caps.” Verizon doesn’t have any plans, but will continue to evaluate the issue.

However, as caps proliferate, it’s worth examining the repercussions, even those of a cap that allows someone to download 150 to 250 GB per month — or the equivalent of streaming videos for 250 hours or about 10.5 days. In my house, we use about 40 GB per month, while my colleague Darrell uses about 150 GB per month. AT&T says its average DSL user consumes about 18 GB per month while Comcast claims its median usage (the usage falling in the middle as opposed to an average) is 6 GB per month.

However, Comcast has seen its median creep up, and I personally saw my broadband use rise after I brought an iPad into my home. At the time, Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas said the usage of more devices inside the home was bringing up the median. Of course, there’s also Netflix, which now accounts for 61 percent of streaming movies according to the NPD Group, and about 20 percent of all broadband traffic according to Sandvine.

Netflix has become the ISPs’ favorite whipping boy and will soon be the stated reason caps are implemented. The opportunity to protect the lucrative pay TV business is important, but there are future repercussions and maybe even a monetization strategy that goes beyond protecting pay TV. It would ensure broadband providers can monetize the next wave of the Internet as mobility and connected devices proliferate. Right now, it may seem crazy to imagine a home connection using 250 GB per month, but if one imagines a family of four each with a tablet, maybe a Roku box, some music streaming and a connected home automation system, those gigabytes may add up.

For example, when offering customers a warning about excessive use, cable ISP Suddenlink reportedly sent letters warning customers that perhaps they were streaming music while not in a room, which could result in heavy usage. However, having background music playing isn’t a far-fetched usage scenario, and most people tend to gravitate toward streaming services on their connected sound systems. For example, Tom Cullen of Sonos told me that more than 50 percent of the sound system’s customers use streaming music services as opposed to listening to their own music libraries. Streaming an hour of Pandora uses 56.25 MB per hour, assuming a 128 Kbps streaming rate, so to use up 1 GB, one would have to stream about 20 hours of music.

As more of these services come online, as Om predicts, those caps won’t look as generous. With casual video conferencing through FaceTime, Skype or other chat services, it’s not crazy to think people will be broadcasting more and more of their lives, and maybe even lifestreaming from their homes among a select group of people. For example, I’d love to have a continuous lifestream from the GigaOM home office I could flip to in order to chat with colleagues, and I wouldn’t mind offering them the same, even though it would require me to change out of my sweats. FaceTime requires a mere 90 MB per hour, but if I used it for streaming my work each day, I’d rack up about a gigabyte each day in FaceTime alone 22 days out of the month.

The point here is that while a 250 GB cap seems reasonable for many today, in perhaps as little as two years it won’t be. And by then, carriers will have consumers trained to think of broadband as a capped or consumption based service as opposed to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Comcast has said it will raise the cap as usage levels rise, but there’s no guarantee. AT&T actually has an incentive to keep that cap at 150 GB since it will charge overage fees. (Comcast just cuts off service after a person exceeds the cap multiple times.) So while the urge to prevent Netflix and other streaming services from competing with pay TV is a likely goal of these caps, they are also training the consumer to consider broadband limits, which may in turn limit innovation and new applications.

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DirecTV To Raise Rates 4% In 2011; the satellite operator will initiate price hikes and new fees in February. (MultiChannel News)

BitTorrent Zeitgeist: What People Searched For in 2010; the most popular search term was Inception. (TorrentFreak)

Logitech requires Gigabyte to suspend Revue shipments; the Google TV maker has reportedly informed Gigabyte Technology to temporarily suspend shipments of its Revue set-top boxes for the period from December 2010 to January 2011. (DigiTimes)

The Top 20 DMCA Cease and Desist Senders of 2010; the music and movie industries are some of the biggest complainers, but there are also some unexpected entrants. (TorrentFreak)

ISP won’t reveal names of alleged porn pirates; Time Warner only unmasked ten Avatar porn downloaders per month. (Media Maverick)

Roku CEO Not Worried About Usage Caps; Internet set-top box maker looks to add more channels, retail distribution in 2011. (MultiChannel News)

You’ll need an iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2nd-gen, as well as the redsn0w jailbreak, which you can download from here. Now you’re set to do the real work, but first a disclaimer: the procedure is rather simple, but be warned that you could easily brick your device if you’re not careful. Also, jailbreaking will void your warranty, so be smart and restore your device with iTunes before you take it down to the Genius Bar.

Got it? Great.

If your device is still running on iOS 3.x, you’ll need to upgrade to 4.0 before you proceed. Just go into iTunes, click on your device in the sidebar, and check for updates.

The Nitty Gritty

1. When you start-up redsn0w, you’ll need to point it to the iOS 4 IPSW, which, if you’ve already installed iOS 4 on your device, should be at ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/ and will be named something like iPhone1,2_4.0 for the iPhone and iPod2,1_4.0 for the iPod.

2. If you’re using an iPod, redsn0w will ask you to clarify whether it’s one of the newer models that start with “MC.” You can check this by going to General -> About on your iPod and scrolling down to “Model.”

3. Now you can decide what features you want redsn0w to enable. You can choose to install Cydia (which is like an unwalled version of the App Store), Verbose boot (which gives you every detail of what’s going on while your device boots), Custom boot logo, and Custom recovery logo. That’s nice, but you can also enable multitasking, home screen wallpapers, and the battery percentage indicator, which are the really great benefits from doing this.

4. Connect your device to your Mac and turn it off by holding down the lock button until a red slider appears, which you should then slide. Make sure your device is completely off before you continue, meaning there should be no spinning progress indicator, or anything, on the screen.

5. Be prepared for this part, because redsn0w will start on this step immediately once you click “Next.” You’ll need to put your device into Device Firmware Update (DFU) mode. redsn0w will walk you through it, but you’ll need to be quick. The process basically goes like this:

• Hold down the lock button for 3 seconds
• Without releasing the lock button, hold down the home button for 10 seconds
• Without releasing the home button, let go of the lock button and continue holding the home button for 30 seconds, though redsn0w should start doing its thing before the 30 seconds are up. Once you see a grey background on your screen, you can let go of the home button.

6. Watch while redsn0w jailbreaks your device and enables all the features that Apple left out. Do not yank the device of the cord, no matter what happens. That’s a recipe for bricking your device. Just relax and go get some coffee, or drool over the new Mac mini. When you come back, your device will be running with all the features you envied the 3GS for. Tip: You can enable the battery percentage indicator by going into Settings -> General -> Usage and turning it on.

How does the old hardware handle multitasking?

4.0 was already sluggish for me without multitasking. Rest assured, your performance won’t improve if it was already sluggish. But it hasn’t gotten worse, at least on my device, and if you’re going to use a sluggish OS, you may as well have all the features enabled, right?

Is your device running faster after the 4.0 update? Slower? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

A beta web browser is also added in this new version on the Nook to take advantage of the Wi-Fi capability. This browser is likely to be crude, such as that on the Kindle, but it enables the ability to use the Nook in hotspots that require a web browser login. Nook owners have been crying out for this ability since the device launch.

If the update doesn’t show up automatically on your Nook, go to My Library while on a Wi-Fi connection and check for new content. You should see a prompt to get the update.

This update leads to the question when iPad owners can expect a version of the B&N Reader app for the device. CNET was told by B&N that an iPad specific version of the reader should be out “sometime in May”, with an iPhone version out sometime after that. The iPad version is being totally rewritten to take advantage of the device, according to B&N.

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Sure, it might be better if these kids were celebrating a love of technology, rather than the fact that they will one day get to boss their peers around, but whatever works. For those interested in participating, Connect a Million minds has a web site that offers appropriate events by zip codes. Truly ambitious folks can also pledge to host a program or event themselves. Here’s hoping that along with its commitment to math and science projects, Time Warner can boost its competition to provide better broadband. I know all the young geeks would appreciate it.

Updated

• Up to 20 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream/2 Mbps upstream: $309.95
• Up to 50 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream $349.95

For that kind of money a customer gets the fast broadband, static IP addresses, more email accounts and better customers service, but is still on a shared line. However, I’m pretty sure plenty of business customers will take it, if only for the improved upload speeds. For example, in my market a T-1 line costs about that much and delivers 1.5 Mbps on a dedicated line. Update: However, Om points out that Comcast charges business customers $189 for 50 Mbps in San Francisco which makes TWC’s pricing crazy high. Gotta love that lack of competition.

Meanwhile, residential pricing or service hasn’t been announced yet, which has me thinking that Time Warner, which has said it will deploy DOCSIS 3.0 “surgically,” is still cherry-picking its markets and customers for super-fast broadband. Meanwhile, Comcast has deployed DOCSIS 3.0 to 38 million homes and will cover 100 percent of its footprint by the end of the year.

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The upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0, which Time Warner has implemented in New York City already, would offer speeds of 50 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up for about $100 a month. Everyone knows that I have incredible pipe envy thanks to my colleagues with FiOS or Comcast’s wideband services, but maybe my time spent on the outside looking in is over. Light Reading suggests that Time Warner will deploy D3 in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and maybe the unlucky Beaumont in Texas; Akron, Columbus and Dayton in Ohio; and Albany, Buffalo, and Schenectady in upstate New York. The roll-out would coincide with areas where Time Warner Cable is feeling pressure from Verizon’s FiOS or AT&T’s U-verse service.

Of course, given the last time I asked about DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades, a Time Warner Cable spokesman inferred that it would come with tiered broadband, I may change my tune when I learn the details of Time Warner Cable’s roll-out. But for now, I’m hoping that by mid-2010 Austin will be one of the lucky portions of Texas to get superfast broadband. Especially the faster upload speeds.

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However, Verizon’s CEO Ivan Seidenberg told an audience of investors the day before that the carrier will focus on selling more mobile data bundles as it tries to make up for declining voice revenue. Well, Verizon, which is it? Will wireless data be bundled or will it be usage-based?

Lynch said Verizon would likely introduce a pricing scheme in which customers will be charged a base rate for using the upcoming next-generation Long Term Evolution wireless network, and then charged another fee based on how much bandwidth they use. Yet when Seidenberg was asked about the opportunity to grow data revenue, he replied by saying that Verizon was experimenting with ways to segment pricing for data consumption. He added (emphasis mine):

Frankly, we have to address this issue long term because in the final analysis, voice dilution will continue, and we either sell bundles of data or we don’t make up that difference. So I think if you look at the drivers of it, data, 35%, should go to 50% to 60% of revenues over a reasonable period of time.

I think the unmeasured aspect of data will be video. The experts would suggest that maybe in five years, 50% to 60% of mobile traffic could be video. Even if that’s off by a little bit, it’s still a big number, so I think the drivers of more data and more bundles are there.

The key for us is to get out in front of the architecture issues, the distribution issues, and to make sure that the market — the customer is conditioned correctly to pay for the value of that. That’s been the biggest difficulty there. But I think that’s happening.

I asked spokesman Jeff Nelson about the apparent contradiction, who said: “Dick Lynch discussed potential pricing in a 4G LTE environment. We have not rolled out a 4G network, and won’t until late 2010.” He then referred me to another spokesperson who handles pricing, who didn’t return my email.

I find it hard to believe that Seidenberg is tying five-year predictions on mobile video growth to selling data bundles without taking into account the rollout of the carrier’s LTE network, planned for later this year. Seidenberg is clearly telling Wall Street that data bundles are profitable, and that if the carrier doesn’t create bundled plans it can’t offset the decline in voice revenue.

So what’s likely going to happen is that Verizon, seeking to keep data revenues high, will come up with a plan that it calls usage-based, but is really just a misuse of the term to deliver tiered pricing in the form of data bundles. We’ve seen this before as wireline and wireless ISPs attempt to implement tiered pricing under the guise that it forces people to actually pay for what they use. Time Warner Cable made this argument the linchpin of its efforts to implement tiered pricing for broadband.

So when Lynch talks about charging customers based on how much bandwidth they use, there’s no guarantee that those charges will be on a per-gigabyte or per-megabyte basis. Customers may get stuck paying a base LTE subscription fee and then have to add on an extra data bundle so they can pay for the bandwidth they use. In fact, judging by the recent data plan pricing rumors, the cost per MB for the user will go up.

Update: Maybe we’ll get some answers on this and other rumored Verizon’s price changes during a webcast tomorrow morning when Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam and Verizon Chief Financial Officer John Killian will “discuss wireless strategies to drive continued growth.”  For those that don’t want to get up early, I’ll let you know what they say.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr user caesararum

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Despite the monthly decline, the year-over-year picture is a little brighter, with unique viewers, number of streams, and time spent watching online videos each up over 10 percent from the previous year. Unique viewers grew 10.3 percent, to 137.4 million in December, with total streams at about 10.7 billion. The amount of time spent watching videos online was also up year-over-year, to 193.2 minutes per month, on average.

Four of the top five video properties in November saw declines over the following month. YouTube‘s streams were down from 6.7 billion streams in November to 6.4 billion in December, while the number of streams also declined at Hulu (from 657 million to 635 million), MSN (from 147 million to 141 million), and Fox Interactive Media (from 137 million to 125 million).

No. 3-ranked Yahoo proved to be an exception among the top five, growing from 197 million streams to 244 million streams month-over-month. Meanwhile, Turner Sports bounded into the top 10 — and all the way into the top five — with 142 million streams during the month.

Of course, not everyone believes Nielsen’s estimates, and some video companies — like Hulu — have expressed frustration over the research firm’s methods for determining the unique users or streams viewed. Nielsen is trying to change that, with a new initiative to install “Internet meters” in homes that participate in its National Television Panel.

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