CableOne is taking a page from a new AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) policy, charging customers extra if they exceed certain monthly bandwidth consumption thresholds.

DSL Reports caught wind of the tiers Thursday and obtained the accompanying rate card.

For its new Docsis 3.0 tiers, with services as fast as 50Mbit/s, CableOne is charging 50 cents per gigabyte above a threshold -- 100GB per month for triple-play customers or 50MB with a two-service or standalone contract.

That's in line with "excessive use" policies for some of CableOne's other speed tiers. For its Standard, 5Mbit/s tier, a customer is charged extra for exceeding 3GB on more than half of the days of a given billing cycle. The ceiling jumps to 5GB per day during that span for its 10Mbit/s Premium service. Customers who violate the policy could be asked to move to a higher service level or possibly face service suspension or termination.

Why this matters
Already broadly adopted in Canada, usage-based billing policies for U.S. broadband could supplant all-you-can-eat tiers and large excessive use caps now that AT&T is charging overage fees for DSL and U-verse Internet.

CableOne is a Tier 2 MSO, but some analysts believe that bigger operators, including Charter Communications Inc. , Cox Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), might also enact usage-based billing policies.

For more
Check out the stories below to learn more about the trend:

• AT&T to Fit Subs With Broadband Caps
• Will Cable Follow AT&T's Lead on Usage Fees?
• Charter's Internet Cap to Bare Its Fangs
• TWC Mothballs New Metering Trials
• Comcast Draws the Line at 250GB

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable