How much would you pay for a lifetime Internet connection? Charter Communications is about to find out; so far, one of its consumers has bid $38,579. (3 p.m. PT) for everlasting 16 MBPS connectivity, plus the promise of upgrades for life.

It’s part of an interesting marketing campaign Charter’s been quietly waging at its website. The operator will present one winner of the online auction with a document entitling that consumer to up to five computer and/or wireless connections in their home for the winner’s life. Consumers must register to bid in the auction and have a chunk of change in the bank or a credit card with a big limit. The winner will be notified on April 4 if he or she has won the auction, and he or she will have only 48 hours from that point to pay their new "cable bill."

Auction action has been constant and one would expect a surge in the next two days, as the event ends.

We guess the gimmick would make sense if you were relatively young and plan to stay put for at 30 years or so (or to relocate only into Charter-served areas). By our calculations, the bill for Internet service would average $107 a month if you utilized the "for life" award for that amount of time.

(Frankly, I’d be afraid some technological change would come around in five years that would make my pre-paid home connections the software equivalent of the BetaMax, but that’s just me.)

I was also interested by one of the caveats in the official rules: should the winner’s system cease to be a Charter property within three years of the "everlasting" award, the winner will get a pro-rated refund on their bid. Hmm, are they trying to tell us something about Charter’s corporate forturnes?

But the auction (and an accompanying sweepstakes, for a Nintendo Wii) has driven web traffic for the operator: Charter asserts that the auction has attracted ½ million visitors to the site. The company has also announced it will donate the auction proceeds to Habitat for Humanity.