“You’re used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your home computer goes over its Internet allowance? Time Warner Cable Inc. customers – and, later, others – may have to, if the company’s test of metered Internet access is successful,” The Associated Press reports.
“On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and download,” AP reports. “Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte, a Time Warner Cable executive told the Associated Press.”
“Metered billing is an attempt to deal fairly with Internet usage, which is very uneven among Time Warner Cable’s subscribers, said Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable’s executive vice president of advanced technology,” AP reports.
“Just 5 percent of the company’s subscribers take up half of the capacity on local cable lines, Leddy said. Other cable Internet service providers report a similar distribution,” AP reports.
“Time Warner Cable appears to be the first major ISP to charge for going over the limit: Other companies warn, then suspend, those who go over,” AP reports. “Leddy said its tiers will range from $29.95 a month for relatively slow service at 768 kilobits per second and a 5-gigabyte monthly cap to $54.90 per month for fast downloads at 15 megabits per second and a 40-gigabyte cap. Those prices cover the Internet portion of subscription bundles that include video or phone services. Both downloads and uploads will count toward the monthly cap.”
“Those who mainly do Web surfing or e-mail have little reason to pay attention to the traffic caps: a gigabyte is about 3,000 Web pages, or 15,000 e-mails without attachments. But those who download movies or TV shows will want to pay attention. A standard-definition movie can take up 1.5 gigabytes, and a high-definition movie can be 6 to 8 gigabytes,” AP reports.
Full article here.
Will you be willing to pay extra if not just your home computer, but your Apple TV as well, goes over Time Warner Cable’s Internet allowance?
Short answer- No
Long answer- Goodbye
Translation – Use your Digital Cable box for content, not the interweb or Apple – OR THEY DOC YA. Well played, Time Warner.
Oh, to live in a land where such a move causes a stir. Here in Oz BigPond charges 15c a MEGABYTE if you go over the limit.
Would you be willing to pay extra if the windows box you are using is so infected with spyware that phones home that it uses up all your bandwidth while you are asleep?
and the award for stupidity goes to ….. drum roll….. Time Warner
In Australia, all ISPs charge for plans that have a gigabyte limit. Ranging from 1gig, 3gig, 5gig etc up 10gig, 15, 25 gig etc. Some are “unlimited” but transfer rate is slowed to dial-up speed once your upload/download limit is reached. (Telstra’ s 12gig “unlimited” costs about $59/month). Others are unlimited but very expensive. (Over $75/month). There are others that don’t slow the download/upload speed, but charge exhorbitant rates like 25c per MB for excess usage!
Seems only fair that heavy bandwidth users pay for their usage thus hopefully making it cheaper for the low users of the world.
I don’t hear them offering lower starting price points or any discounts for people who use less than average… So, F that then.
$55 for only 40 GB/mo!? Even Rogers here in Canada doesn’t bend me over that badly–I pay about $45 for a 60 GB limit.
My Rogers account level is only 8 Mbps versus TW’s 15 Mbps, but that higher speed is salt in the wound–sure we’ll give you a fatter pipe, but you can’t use it as much!
Glad we don’t have that crap here. But we’ve got something almost as bad… Crapcast and its total monopoly on cable here.
Will they practice what they preach? Will they also charge for extra data usage whenever they sell a pay-per-view movies? I think not! This is unfair abuse of monopoly power and I hope our government doesn’t tolerate this.
If they want to cut out unfair internet usage, then block those greedy bandwidth sucking pay-per-view pigs too!
This is merely a way for them to take advantage of the booming trend of downloading/streaming TV shows & movies online. They want a piece of that pie and are going to hinder technological advancement unless you empty your wallet for them.
Actually, an open and honest pricing system managing internet “pipe” limits is a GOOD thing. Far better than secret cable company software programs that throttle back internet speed during heavy use. If ALL of the ISPs were open about how they handle this, then consumers could make an intelligent choice. I hope Comcast develops an open system, AND tries to make it cheaper than Time Warner’s!
Yeah, Time Warner is “Progressive”.
Here in San Diego, a disaster with their new TV system rollout. It’s so bad, they spun off their TV “services” (i.e. punishment) to another company.
This company is bad. They forgot all about making sure they aren’t in breach. They’re ripe for a class action suit.
Time Warner is the ISP for broadband service where I live. The worst part of it is that they, of course, are a monopoly service in my town. So there is no recourse. Free enterprise competition, what a bullshit fairy tale!
So no, I cannot say goodbye if they impose this until a competitor appears and that isn’t going to occur any time soon.
Does Verizon do this with their FIOS offerings? I was going to get Comcast, but all this throttling talk has turned me away. DSL sucks in comparison, especially where I am, but at least I can do what I want, when I want and for how long I want.
Do you get a rebate or discount if you don’t go over their arbitrary threshold of acceptable use?
moenrj –
That’s a great idea. Work it kind of like AT&T;’s rollover minutes and let people keep any unused bandwidth they haven’t used.
That’s exactly why I don’t use cable services.
GREEDY BASTARDS!!!
@beyondthetech:
++
Beryllium
You and any other person or company are free to offer your own answer to Time Warner, through Wi-Fi, WiMax, DSL, satellite, or fiber.
Just gather up some money and do it. Your city council will most likely not object.
That is the Free Enterprise system.
It is what will keep TW from doing this nationally.
I hope that anyone using Time Warner is giving them an ear full on the phone or through email. I know I would be if I were using there service. I would let them know they start that crap, GOODBYE!!!!
We the customers can throttle there business, right down to ZERO!!!
I believe this is a way for Time Warner to battle Apple TV and iTunes in content downloading. (And its completely classless imo.)
If this does take effect everywhere I wonder what it would do to Apple’s iTunes business (particularly in the movie rental department where each movie is usually around 1.5 gb)
Knowing the way SJ doesn’t tolerate being put into a corner I wouldn’t be surprised if he used his AT&T;partnership and really pushed forward to create a competitive wifi network via AT&T;’s towers that not only iPhones can access, but so can computer with wifi and it can all be on one bill and unlimited.
It’s time to find another ISP, where in the world is AT&T;’s fiber?
As someone already mentioned, they don’t offer discounts to those who don’t use bandwith, so it looks like another attempt to extort some extra money. Remember few years ago when there was that big thing about cable companies overcharging? What did we get? Higher prices! Yes, they lowered monthly fees by $1 and started charging for $3 for cable guide, $2 for something else and suma sumarum we ended up paying more.
If this is only for new costomers… Who is going to sign up? Lets see, Pay more than ATT, get same speed, get less service. Uh, no.
The problem with this is that most people don’t use anywhere near 40GB in a month, so they won’t care. The bottom line is that Time Warner can limit use if they want, it’s their service. I think they should, at the very least, offer an unlimited plan.
“You and any other person or company are free to offer your own answer to Time Warner, through Wi-Fi, WiMax, DSL, satellite, or fiber.”
Why sure I am, Towertone, and I’m also free in my spare time to learn nuclear physics and build my own nuclear powered electricity generating station.
This “solution” is not practical for the individual consumer.
> Work it kind of like AT&T;’s rollover minutes and let people keep any unused bandwidth they haven’t used.
Hmm, I could start trading in bandwidth futures…..
B
Luckily, you and no one else can build nuclear plants, or gas refineries, and soon, coal fired plants, either. Keeps the economy in Texas good.
However, you can build, or use, other means to access the internet.
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Hence, no monopoly.
I don’t have a problem with the concept, but the rates are absurd. It’s like a 30% tax on iTunes movie downloads. Ridiculous. I could see 10¢ per GB over the limit or so, depending on their limits. But in this age, everyone should have at least, say, 20 GB allowed per month. If you watch TV online, or download video, it’s normal usage.
Vote with your dollars…
Oh, and I find ironic that the cell companies are moving to “unlimited” calling plans and now cable companies are going back to charging extra
Next stop Time Warner out of internet business…
“Next stop Time Warner out of internet business…”
That ain’t gonna happen.
Eventually, internet is all that TW will offer.
Think about it.
Ok, I live in Wisconsin, and my ISP is Excel.net. They are back in the 90’s as far as internet service is concerned. (Their usage meter shows kilobytes, yes KILOBYTES!) I am paying $50 a month for a 384k/128k connection per month. I am stuck with this pathetic excuse for an ISP, because they are the only ones in our area. (I live in the country, have to have wireless) We have a pathetic, 4 GB download limit every month. We go over it all the time. After our 4 GB are up, we are reduced to a slow-dialup connection for the rest of the month. We have 4 people who use the internet daily, and even with just emails and web surfing, not including watching videos, we are pretty close to going over in the 3rd week of the month. If we want more bandwidth, it costs another $50 for 2 more GB! I would love to have a fast highspeed connection, I know people who live in milwaukee who have a 10mbps connnection for $30 a month, with no bandwidth limit!
So, right now, they bill me extra to get to 1 MB/sec download speed, and something less that 200KB/sec upload speed. So, I’m paying for high throughput. Now, they are going to change me to actually use my bandwidth? So, I pay extra for a higher speed connection with Time Warner, and they’re going to say that my 5% uses up most of the the internet traffic? I already pay for that priv. Oh, now they want to reorder the payment so as to take more advantage of the consumer. Screw off!
If they institute this policy in Los Angeles, I am moving back to DSL.
What surprises me is Comcast didn’t think of this scam first. It’s Comcastic!
I’m NW of Houston and have been a Road Runner and now Comcast user for years. I download using iTunes and DirecTV On-Demand. If Comcast starts metering I’ll go to AT&T;DSL in a heartbeat.
@macoverdose_dot_com
For Time Warner it actually isn’t stupid to do. If you go over the limit then you surely are not downloading or uploading legally. And if you are then it’s most likely they believe you are running a business and want you to upgrade and pay through the nose for business class internet which may as well be the same speed but they charge you more for it.
Comcast has a nice invisible limit which I believe is a little over 100GB a month. You cross it and you get a warning… again and they suspend it. Happened to some people I know. So I just keep it under 100GB a month and im good.
$1 a gig is not expensive.
Compare that to Australia, it’s 15cents per megabyte when we go over.
Some of you may not know, or might not be thinking of this, but:
Cable Internet, at the local block/street level, is distributed via a “common node” so you have to “share” bandwidth with your neighbors. You may have a potential of 8 MB, for example, if you’re the only one online. But once the kid next door starts downloading from UseNet, well, do the math.
DSL, however, is dedicated. So what you pay for is what you get.
Yes, it is chitty of Cable to charge extra for those who use extra, but is the nature of that technology. Unless you’re the kid downloading everything – and doubt you want him eating up ALL the available bandwidth along your street, and paying same as you – you might want to get DSL.
Otherwise, hang in there a while longer. Won’t be too many more years before all the “wire and cable” folks can kiss our ass.
Beam us around Scotty with that WiMax/WiFi/700Mhz/whatever … just get us off the damn umbilical cords.
Thanks
BC Kelly
Tallahassee Fla
“This is unfair abuse of monopoly power and I hope our government doesn’t tolerate this.”
And what makes you think the government is not in bed on this? They have wanted to generate revenue from the internet for years. This is nothing more than a way to sneak in revenue generation through the back door. Pay more. Tax more. It’s that simple.
If you think that’s bad, how about getting your download speed throttled down to worse-than-dialup for 400MB? That’s right, megabytes. And I pay $100/month for that privilege. Hughes satellite is even worse than Time-Warner. That’s right, feel my pain…
I dislike this move. Hopefully free market enterprise will take care of this. The problem, however, is that there are really only a couple of choices for ISP, as one has only so many pipes into one’s house. Be glad when someone rolls out fiber….
@BC Kelly:
DSL, however, is dedicated. So what you pay for is what you get.
Not necessarily true. <strike>SBC</strike> AT&T has a system where it uses mini-DSLAMs in the neighborhood, each fed by fiber or high-speed copper links. All of the users of this local unit share that bandwidth, although you do have the rated speed from your modem to the local unit. If everyone is using their max bandwidth, however, the same slowdown can happen as with cable modem.
MW: What’s clear is that there ain’t no free lunch.
And people wonder what Apple is saving up its war chest for. Moves like this just may tempt them to become an ISP.
This is what is called PARASITE GOUGING.
What is going on in the background is the streamed and downloaded video revolution. Apple TV is just the tip of the ice burg of what is rapidly being developed, if not already here. Example: This Wednesday I am attending a demonstration of MythTV for Linux which will integrate computers with your entire entertainment center with Internet downloaded media as the main source.
So what does Time Warner want to do? DOUBLE the cost of your downloads. 4 GB HD movie? $4.00. Then DOUBLE that for the Time Warner highway tax. F*ck that!
As a reference, here is what I currently pay for Time Warner service in Syracuse, NY, where we have 4 competitors in the broadband market: $46 per month for 10 Mbit/sec download, 1 Mbit/sec upload. “Business Class” at my office is 15 Mbit/sec down, 2 Mbit/sec up. The total possible bandwidth via Time Warner locally is 20 Mbit/sec down max, 5 Mbit/sec up.
The competition: Version FIOS optical net service. ClearWire, who rumor has it will be using WiMax Internet connections next year. Meridian, using AC current access to the Internet.
FACT: If Time Warner tries this scam around here, someone else will NOT. Customers will ABANDON TimeWarner and go with the competition.
Meanwhile in Beaumont, Texas: Time Warner are taking advantage of monopoly status to screw their customers. They can get away with the scam, so they’re doing it. There has already been considerable protest to stop this monopolist action, but Time Warner has ignored it, because they can.
Expect a mighty uproar as this disease spreads around the country to Comcast, etc.
:-Q**********
the bastards. I will not pay for my piracy bandwidth, that goes against everything i believe in as a pirate!
Some comments on comments:
jtc sez:
“For Time Warner it actually isn’t stupid to do. If you go over the limit then you surely are not downloading or uploading legally.”
INCORRECT. Streamed and downloaded PURCHASED video over the Internet is already here. Go over your limit and the typical cost of a video is DOUBLED, with half the money going to Time Warner. Explain to everyone how that makes ANY sense.
Fighting back: DEMAND to your local government that your local broadband ISP monopoly END NOW! Get as many competitors into your market as possible. DUMP abusive ISPs. The customer rules. Make the service provider bend to the will of the customer, never the other way around.
Meanwhile, get your local government to instigate upgrading local bandwidth with fiber cable upgrades, etc. Clearly we are headed into a bandwidth crunch, so get on top of it ASAP. Don’t give the ISPs any ammunition to support their GOUGING perpetration.
the best days of the internet are behind us.
Metered billing? Think back to the initial AOL business model… that’s how they did it.
Metered billing? Think back to when ever long distance minute on your telephone was billied.
Why don’t they just improve the network instead of charging more for their lousy service in the first place?
Wow, I have TW, and I use a Slingbox. I may need to consider alternatives.
Here in San Diego, I just cancelled Time Warner’s TV service. What a horrible experience. When they screw up internet service, I’ll just switch back to AT&T;DSL. Sure, it’s slower, but even with AT&T;’s lousy customer service, it’s better than TWC’s.
Does anyone know if video conferencing via iChat AV would count against the bandwidth limit? It’s the way I communicate with my siblings and my son scattered around the world and it would sure make me mad if they screwed with that.
This is crazy….I don’t think I’m a heavy user, no bit torrent, or limewire or anything like that….but I do buy seasons of TV shows on iTunes, rent movies on my AppleTVs and buy music. Not to mention i work at home a lot, developing websites, and have to sync data, upload and download….so I’d hit this 40GB limit very quickly. Just purchased a 12 epidsode season on iTunes – 4.4gbs – so I’d be 10% to my total on June 3??? That’s nuts…
Of course, I’ll bitch, complain, and yell if my local carrier decides to implement this (or should I say when)….but since there’s NO REAL competition in my area – in fact, I only have one broadband choice….I’ll be stuck.
“Does anyone know if video conferencing via iChat AV would count against the bandwidth limit?”
Anything that runs over the internet counts against your bandwidth limit. That’s kind of the definition of “limit.”
I do have to wonder at some point if governments aren’t going to decide that having internet service as a public infrastructure makes just as much sense as having roads. There’s definitely a lot more physical trade and commerce (and thus, tax revenue) now than when all the roads were privately-owned and you had to pay all kinds of tolls just to get from one place to another. If the ISPs are too successful at making money (and interfering with commerce on their networks in the process), they may just find themselves nationalized (yes, even in the US)
No way…. and better yet f–k off… why do old men spend so much time f–kin the public! TW DROP DEAD IF YOU GUYS HAVEN’T ALL READY!
Where are all those assholes talking about Canada being a backwater because of it’s phone data rates?
I have news for you: corporations are the same everywhere. They will squeeze every last dime out of you and will use collusion and general consumer apathy to get away with it. It doesn’t matter where you live. I’m pretty damn sure there are millions of USAnians whose choices are severely limited by their demographics and or geographic location. Are they somehow stupid or ill informed because they simply have no choice?
Didn’t think so.
Living in Australia and having gone over my monthly usage last month, due to a slew of software updates, it makes me worried that the trend might be going towards more ISPs using the metered usage model.
From what I understand, Australia has such a model because of the cost of data to get here due to our relative geographical isolation. So this is assuming that once we have some better infrastructure (like what our government is meant to be doing over the next few years), eventually the need for a usage model won’t be necessary. Seems I was wrong.
How disappointing, particularly in light of the emergence of content-driven devices like Apple TV.
Hm. TimeWarner’s own HBO just recently announced “free” downloads of shows for subscribers. Well, apparently TW had already figured out how to “monetize the service” while advertising its “freeness.” TW is starting to remind me of the Teamster’s Union of the 50s. Is their next plan to snap your USB cables if you don’t sign up?
I doubt that Comcast is limiting in the “home”. They are limiting what goes over their backbone connections to the “internet”. TWC is apparently looking at the same thing.
So, DSL/Cable/Fiber/<insert other service here> will all probably eventually be charged/charging based on the “backbone” costs.
If as a company I can limit my “backbone” costs I’m getting charged (generally a 95th percentile type usage charge with overage charges), then it is easier to control my costs (since in theory a well ran network should be controllable). If the company is limiting the total bandwidth usage to combat the “local network over-subscription” – which is a bursty problem rather than a sustained problem – the total bandwidth limits don’t make sense.
Kind of reminds me of “toll” roads like the ones in Oklahoma. Supposedly they were being built and financed by the drivers “using” the roads, and that was true initially. However, 20-30-40 years later with the roads paid for many times over, the state keeps renewing the tolls and raising them as well.
How many people do you know that choose to “exit” the “SuperHighway” to avoid the charges? Most just throw their change or buy the “quick cards” and keep going.
Welcome to the next version of the “Internet SuperHighway/Tollroad”.
OFF TOPIC!
His Divine Shadow sez:
“I have news for you: corporations are the same everywhere. They will squeeze every last dime out of you and will use collusion and general consumer apathy to get away with it. It doesn’t matter where you live.”
A brilliant film on DVD to watch is “The Corporation” for a few years back. It penetrates below the surface of the story.
Here is what is going on behind the curtain in the corporate world: There is an extremely successful campaign to play the ‘Master and Servant’ (cue Depeche Mode!), Lord and Serf, neo-fiefdom game. Despite the concept that the customer is king, corporations are successfully turning that on its head. They are KING, you are peon peasant. And their employees are of even lower stature. Those willing to accept the lowest wages and benefits (hello Asia) get the job.
Points of support:
– “BUY BUY BUY!” marketing to the point of shaping the direction of the entire culture. You pay, they gain. You go poor, they grow stronger and more powerful. The time was when companies either paid you to wear their t-shirt (as an advertisement, which it IS) or gave it away. Now you go to swanky over-priced stores and BUY their advertisement t-shirts. Get it?
– “CHEAP DEBT!” for a year or so. The BLAMO, you get blown out of the water with inflated interest rates. Lose your house! Join the homeless. The new untouchables.
– 401K RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS! (A phenomenon here in the USA). Despite the endless rhetoric you will hear from the ‘experts’ that they have a long term history of growth, the fact is that they actually have, in this new era, a long term history of DECLINE. IOW you invest, you lose! So who gains? The stock market companies who receive your 401K ‘investments’. Who’s Your Daddy? The corporations. They gain, you lame.
Ad nauseum. Of course the ultimate “Late Dark Age” (my term) will arrive when the Chinese and the radical loony fringe fake-Muslims take over the planet. That’ll be loads of Master and Servant fun.
Thus ends today’s lesson in justified paranoia.
;-D