By Dave Porter

(AXcess News) Reno - Comcast has decided to limit the number of downloads customers can make in a month, capping the bandwidth limit of Americans who access the web through the cable provider.  Now other Internet Service Providers are expected to follow suit.

For several years, communications companies have lobbied Washington to curb the amount of bandwidth they provide, arguing that it costs them extra.  Now, Comcast becomes the first Internet Service Provider to limit bandwidth and through it's move, change the landscape of the web as Americans know it.

With advances in technology, such as AT&T's 3G network, the growing use of online video and high-speed Internet access now making up the bulk of American web user accounts, bandwidth levels are at an all-time high.  Comcast, Warner Cable, Frontier and Charter Communications are all looking to cap customer downloads that will limit the bandwidth provided customers.

Comcast says that beginning October 1st, customers will be limited to the amount of bandwidth they can use in a month.  The company, which is the nation's second-largest Internet Service Provider, says only about one percent of users will be affected by the change.

The change will come in the form of an amendment to customer agreements that will limit the amount of bandwidth to 250 gigabytes per month.  Those affected might be game enthusiasts and users who create and upload an above average number of videos.

Earlier, Frontier changed its user policy on August 1st limiting acceptable bandwidth usage to 5 gigabytes per month.  Time Warner put its toe into the web's bandwidth pool in June, testing a pilot program in Beaumont, Texas that limited bandwidth usage to between 5 to 40 gigabytes per month.  So far, Time Warner hasn't said whether it will rollout a nationwide bandwidth policy, though after Comcast's move, its sure to follow.

Critics argue that it's all a scheme to charge more for Internet access, that the cable companies in concort with the telecommunications providers are looking for ways to raise prices.  What better avenue than to cap user bandwidth.

It's ok to say you're an abuser of the services provided, except that it's not fair to make everyone else pay for it.

What many people don't realize is the cable companies are the ones who'll come out on top when it comes to video and other rich media tools that require higher levels of bandwidth.  While consumers are facing limits, connectivity limitations will spill over into webhosting where a vast number of small businesses online rely on their bandwidth terms in order to provide users with the services they may offer.  Chalking up higher bandwidth costs for a small website could be hard to swallow, though their larger competitors can well afford it.  This shift in costs will cause a drop in hosted-content services, or force providers to pass on those costs to web customers, such as the thousands of small newspaper websites that provide TV listings, or who license video news feeds from the Associated Press.

The trickle down effect of higher bandwidth costs are going to change the landscape of what you access online, not only from a users' ISP, but for the millions of websites registered under top domains in the USA and elsewhere.

Some websites may move to list warnings to users who might access certain files that it could cause their bandwidth usage to go up.  Other websites totally focused on video may go out of business altogether.

Network television companies like CBS, are moving more into the video marketplace and they for one don't like roadblocks thrown up between their content and users.  Cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner rely on CBS, NBC, ABC and others to provide their cable television customers with programming, though the web is becoming more accessible for viewing programs online.

The booming gamer industry is also at risk as many of the online games users access suck vast amounts of bandwidth.  Google's YouTube.com may see the number of user uploads decline and perhaps traffic.  Microsoft, a proponent of hosting software online, has its own issues with bandwidth costs as it looks to slowly nudge operating programs off of your desktop to an online service you would log-in to use.

At every juncture, no matter how you take it apart, bandwidth caps are going to hit everyone in higher user costs that will push up the rates for multiple online accounts.