Downloading those television shows you missed, or those movies you just do not want to see could cost you a little extra in the future if you are using AT&T as your internet provider.

According to an article in USA Today the countries largest internet provider is pondering about charging extra fees for customers who download large amounts of data.

Spokesman Michael Coe stated that the top 5% AT&T’s total customers use a total of 46% of the bandwidth and that the rate of overall bandwidth is also surging doubling every year and a half.

Most cable companies have caps on how much users are allowed to download. Time Warner recently started a trail in Beaumont, Texas, which charges $1 for each gigabyte over their bandwidth cap. This is done largely because users who subscribe via cable companies, and are bandwidth hogs can slow down the traffic for others, but what is AT&T’s excuse?

Phone companies of course do not have these problems because their lines are not shared as they run on DSL. What are AT&T’s motives? I find myself pondering this. Could this be the reason that the IPhone is only going to cost $199? Perhaps not, but AT&T is obviously preparing for something.

It should be noted however, that for users that just check their e-mail and surf the internet (do those STILL exist?) will not have any reason to worry about traffic caps. Those of us however who are connected with AT&T and use our computers to download, shop with ITunes store or even use products like Netflix we could be expecting higher fees in the future.