The cable giant had planned on charging customers in four locations on a “consumption” plan in which they’d pay between $15 to $150 a month based on the amount of data they hoovered via the Web. But noisy opposition to the plan surfaced immediately and has been getting louder over the past few weeks.

Instead, the company says, it will spend time on “customer education” to clear up “misunderstandings” about the plan, which it still believes “may be the best pricing plan for consumers,” etc. Translation: We need more time to figure out how to do this without getting our heads ripped off. Or handing over customers to the competition.

That’s what was already happening in Rochester, where Time Warner’s plans were supposedly driving customers to Frontier Communications Co., which offered a (presumably slower) DSL service. From the Associated Press:

“‘We have gotten hundreds of calls from Time Warner customers into our call centers,’ said Ann Burr, the head of Frontier’s Rochester unit, in an interview with The Associated Press. ‘I guess it’s been a public relations crisis for Time Warner.’”

This doesn’t affect other pipe guys’ plans to institute similar caps or consumption-based pricing plans: Comcast (CMCSA), for instance, has a monthly cap on its broadband plans, and threatens to cut off customers who exceed it (thanks to Business Insider’s Dan Frommer for the fact-check).

And as of yesterday, at least, the cable guys’ trade group was pooh-poohing people who complained about the idea. Here’s Kyle McSlarrow, CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, on his group’s blog:

“Hundreds of billions of dollars have been and continue to be invested by our industry in the deployment of broadband and now the deployment of next generation broadband; speeds have doubled or tripled in just the last few years; new and spectacular applications keep getting launched; no anti-competitive conduct has remotely occurred; and, in fact, compared to many other industries, the Internet ecosystem seems to be one of the few really healthy, growing, and creative parts of our economy with continued investment and innovation taking place every day. At a time of economic and financial challenges for our country, I for one would rather Congress spend its time on real problems, not fictional ones.”

[UPDATE: McSlarrow just put out a new post discussing Time Warner's move.]

By the way: McSlarrow, Time Warner Cable, Comcast other pipe guys with similar plans, like AT&T (T), may not have a terrible idea. But they’re going to undergo a lot of public whippings before they get this one through.

NEW YORK–Time Warner Cable today announced it would alter plans to test Consumption Based Billing, shelving the trials while the customer education process continues.

Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt said, “It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing. As a result, we will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met. While we continue to believe that consumption based billing may be the best pricing plan for consumers, we want to do everything we can to inform our customers of our plans and have the benefit of their views as part of our testing process.”

Time Warner Cable also announced that it is working to make measurement tools available as quickly as possible. These tools will help customers understand how much bandwidth they consume and aid in the dialog going forward.

Britt added, “We look forward to continuing to work with Senator Schumer, our customers and all of the other interested parties as the process moves forward, to ensure that informed decisions are made about the best way to continue to provide our customers with the level of service that they expect and deserve from Time Warner Cable.”

So I took a trip up to Rochester, N.Y., over the summer to visit Kodak, the once powerful film giant, which has been struggling in recent years to make the difficult transition from film to digital.

I made a few videos there and then neglected to post them in the rush of other breaking news.

But this glimpse at the declining city Kodak once ruled, along with an interview with Philip Faraci, who was recently named President and COO for all of Eastman Kodak, is illuminating as the company tries to transform itself drastically. (In a side note, Faraci previously worked at Hewlett-Packard for a little more than two decades.)

Here is the first video with Faraci:

That’s a lot harder when you are talking about a business with such a massive legacy as Kodak has carried, even though it was once considered to be the tech marvel of the day. That’s especially true when it is compared to its current competitors, the shape-shifting digital entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley.

Under current CEO Antonio Perez (also a former H-P exec), whom I interviewed at D4 in 2005, Kodak has been trying to dig itself out of a hole and into consistent profitability. (Full disclosure: Kodak has been a regular sponsor of the D: All Things Digital conference that I run with Walt Mossberg.)

That shift has obviously been painful, including huge cuts in its employee base, due to the sharp decline of its market might. Since 2004, Kodak has cut its employee head count from about 64,000 to 30,600 as it has undergone a massive restructuring.

Things are looking up, though. In its most recent quarter, reported in early November, Kodak had a profit on a small sales decline. Its digital sales, from products like inkjet printers and digital cameras, rose to $1.59 billion, up 12%, and represented 60% of revenue. Film-based revenue was down 16%, to $698 million.

Whatever happens, Kodak is an interesting tech turnaround to watch.

(Here is my second Kodak video.)

It also includes a visit to its camera museum with the scientists who created the very first digital camera (and who are clearly being nice despite BoomTown’s complete ignorance about pixels).

Here is the video:

(Here is my first Kodak video.)

Light posting today, as I am in Rochester, N.Y., visiting Kodak headquarters to get a look at what the company is doing in its continuing quest to revive itself after the onslaught of digital media drastically changed its business.

I will be doing one of my “Kara Visits…” videos of my time at the photo icon (which is, full disclosure, a sponsor of the D conference), as I look at what they are up to.

But check in soon for my takes on the growing Web buzz that Rupert Murdoch should take WSJ.com free and also whether YouTube can ever escape its lawsuits.