Yahoo (Reuters) reports that TimeWarner Cable will begin testing a new billing system based on a subscribers bandwidth usage, rather than the traditional flat fee.

I say traditional, though we should all recall that AOL used to bill based on the number of hours logged on.  I was never an AOL subscriber myself, but I have plenty of memories of friends who received monthly bills over $100 for their internet usage.  If TimeWarner thinks the public will accept a return to this type of billing practice, they may lose a lot of customers.

TimeWarner claims that it will test the pilot program in Beaumont, Texas later this year, and commented that the change will only affect ‘heavy’ users, accounting for only 5% of their customer base.