A new bill aimed at derailing unreasonable efforts at per-byte broadband billing faces a steep uphill climb in DC, where AT&T, Verizon and Comcast lobbyists usually get what they want -- particularly if they're working together. Time Warner Cable's effort to hoist low caps and metered billing upon consumers was a sloppy affair, and the public backlash created a unique instance where genuine consumer activism changed the course of a giant corporation.

But that victory was against one company who made a significant number of missteps. With the threat of regulation, the alarm bells have sounded at every giant ISP eager to ditch flat-rate pricing and experiment with billing by the byte. As such, you can expect the gloves to come off and the rhetoric to heat up. How hot? Think of the obnoxious rhetoric surrounding the network neutrality debate circa 2006, and triple it.

This next push for metered billing will be a multi-million dollar effort, utilizing the full arsenal of incumbent public policy relations. That of course means heavy use of lobbyists, paid PR flaks, pseudo-scientific think tanks and even artificial consumer advocacy groups. Collectively, they'll spend the next year or two trying to convince the public and daft lawmakers that metered billing is patriotic, good for children and puppies, and results in vast oceans of innovation pouring out wistfully upon a dreamy sea of competitive innovation.

As Phillip Dampier of Stop The Cap notes, the push began in earnest this week, with a flood of astroturfers and paid policy goofs flooding Internet message boards with the gospel of their handlers. PR departments fired up their engines as well, AT&T insisting to us that their metered billing trials in Reno and Beaumont, Texas are really about making sure that "grandma" gets a fair shake. The American Cable Association's feigned empathy was equally noxious in a statement pretending metered billing is about giving users "control:"Of course killing flat-rate pricing gives control -- to carriers worried about an uncertain future. The push for metered billing comes from investors who are interested in charging more money for the same service at a time when broadband delivery costs are dropping. The push comes from executives who are interested in protecting TV revenues from Internet video by nickel and diming the households of tomorrow with overage fees as high as 2,000% over cost. That truth doesn't sell, so it has to be dressed up under the guise of helping grandma.

However well intentioned, regulation limiting pricing models is never going to get past incumbent lobbyists and a well-lobbied Congress. If government is going to get involved, they're better served by taking actions that foster competition. As we've seen with Cablevision and Verizon's reluctance to impose caps or meters, and Time Warner's reluctance to trial meters in FiOS markets, competition is kind of like DEET for dumb, self-serving telecom ideas. The threat of customer defection will keep carriers on their best behavior.