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.

We already know you love AT&T's Total Home DVR service, but for whatever reason the company's been less than forthcoming about where and when its hitting across the country. Likely spurred on by our coverage (or maybe not) the latest press release breaks down the seven markets currently feeling the joy of multiple HD stream recording and sharing wash over them like rain, or a particularly refreshing soda. U-verse users in Atlanta, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Reno and Sacramento should all have access to the free software upgrade as of today. Press release is after the break, any areas still missing from the official count?

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]

DirecTV has started rolling out a few of the 25 markets it promised to add this year, bringing locals via MPEG-4 satellite to Madison, Reno, and Portland (Maine). You know the drill by now, new satellite and receiver are necessary, the new HR20 will work. Now the total number of markets with locals are up to 45. The stations added in each area are as follows:

• Madison, Wisconsin
• WISC/CBS, WMSN/FOX and WMTV/NBC
• Reno, Nevada
• KOLO/ABC, KTVN/CBS and KRXI/FOX
• Portland, Maine
• WMTW/ABC, WGME/CBS and WCSH/NBC

[Corrected swapped stations, thanks Tristan!]