WASHINGTON - February 4 - According to news reports, two cable companies, Time Warner and Charter Communications, are expected to implement new plans to cap customers' Internet use. Time Warner, which began trialing 5GB to 40GB caps last January in Beaumont, Texas, announced on a quarterly call that it will expand its caps to additional cities. Charter will begin imposing a 100GB cap on any connection below 15Mbps, and a 250GB cap on connections over 15Mbps.

S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, issued the following statement:

"With Congress poised to spend billions getting Americans connected to a better, faster Internet, we're concerned that caps discourage Internet adoption and stifle economic growth. In general, we're wary of any roadblock to the development of applications and services that drive experimentation and innovation online. We need to be expanding our digital economy, not shrinking it."