During an age where unlimited bandwidth has never been more useful for perfectly legal and entertaining reasons, carriers everywhere are looking to harsh our collective mellow. Following in the frowned-upon footsteps of Comcast, AT&T is gearing up to trial monthly bandwidth caps in Nevada. Starting this month, Reno-area subscribers using the carrier's least expensive DSL service (768k) will be forced to download less than 20GB in a month; the cap amount increases with the speed of the service, topping out at 150GB for the 10Mbps level of service. A USA Today report on the matter even admits that "streaming video services like the one Netflix offers" could indeed push users over the limit without any illegal transfers to speak of. Of note, customers involved in the trial will be able to track their usage via the web, and AT&T will contact them if they surpass 80% of their limit. Should they exceed the threshold even after a grace period, they'll be dinged $1 per gigabyte in overage charges. Awesome.

Why does it seem that Charter, out of all the cable carriers in the world, finds itself intertwined with so much mischief? The latest forehead-pounding episode is actually a two-fer, with gripes arising from Reno, Nevada and a rural section of North Carolina. In the Silver State, Charter is apparently looking to pull four public access channels to retrieve bandwidth for the launch of 12 new digital channels. The company's George Jostlin proclaims that the "majority of consumers are calling it on a daily basis and asking for more HD / digital programming," but the City of Reno has announced its intentions to sue the provider if an agreement can't be reached on the matter by next Wednesday. Across the country in McDowell County, NC, Charter is catching flack for wanting to strip Marion of its information channel (and combine it with the county's government channel) in order to add three HD stations. We like the intentions here, but seriously, you folks should work on the execution.

[Thanks PopWeaverHDTV, image courtesy of TSLPL]

Read - Issues in Reno
Read - Stirring the pot in rural NC

Hey Nevada, don't ever say AT&T never gave you anything, alright? Said carrier has just launched its fiber-based U-verse services in the state, with Reno and Sparks first on the list to receive 'em. Both locales can get on board with U-verse TV, High Speed Internet and / or U-verse Voice, and while select individuals can order any of the options now, AT&T has assured us that more homes will be reached "on an ongoing basis." As for Las Vegas? Take a guess -- it's just as good as ours.

[Thanks, sYn0ptik]

You've got to have some serious firepower to attract eyes in Las Vegas -- after all, there's already enough neon in place to keep the average tourist distracted for hours. That being said, Samsung thinks it has what it takes, as it's teaming up with Outdoor Promotions in order to install eighteen 70-inch 1080p LCD panels "on prominent bus shelters spanning the Vegas strip from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino on the south side to the Rivera Hotel and Casino at the north end." The units will all be sunlight-readable and boast 2,000 nits of brightness along with localized audio. We're told that advertisements put up on the beastly sets will shuffle every 7.5- to 15-seconds in a continuous loop, and while the initial 18 are slated to go up in October, another 20 are planned for early 2009 (pre-CES, pretty please?)

[Image courtesy of IntelligentEconomy]

Not that any of you parked out in Vegas are really in watching the tube on a Saturday (right?), but if you've come down with some sort of sickness that's keeping you away from Paradise Road and the vicinity, here's something sure to cheer you up. We've received word that four five new channels have appeared in the Cox EPG in your area, and though they aren't available to watch just yet, it's only a matter of time now. Before long, you should have unbridled access to Animal Planet HD (758), Travel Channel HD (766), Science HD (769) and yes, SciFi HD on slot 745. Not a bad way to start your May, now is it?

[Thanks, John]

Update: ErikR pointed out that these four, along with USA HD (734), are arriving June 1st.

The giving just keeps on spreading, and that's just the way we like it. Shortly after Northern Virginia got hooked up with 11 new high-definition options, it looks like Sin City has been blessed with five of its own. Reportedly, TLC HD, HGTV HD, Food Network HD, Discovery HD and CW HD landed in Cox's Las Vegas, Nevada region, and have been assigned to channels 722, 723, 724, 727 and 734, respectively. According to AVSForum members residing in Vegas, the channels were supposed to go live yesterday, so for those who've had a chance to check it out, did Cox deliver?

[Thanks, D2point0]