Kavu Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 The newly spun-off cable company will impose premium rates on big users of broadband in Web markets in Texas, New York, and North CarolinaWeb users, the meter is running. In a strategy that's likely to rankle consumers but be copied by competitors, Time Warner Cable (TWC) is pressing ahead with a plan to charge Internet customers based on how much Web data they consume. Starting next month, the company will introduce tiered pricing in several markets.In April, Time Warner Cable will begin collecting information on its customers' Internet use in the Texas cities of Austin and San Antonio and in Rochester, N.Y. Consumption billing will begin in those cities later this summer. In Greensboro, N.C., the billing changes will begin sooner. Spun off from Time Warner (TWX) this month, Time Warner Cable had been testing a plan to meter Internet usage in Beaumont, Tex., since last year.By charging a premium to the heaviest broadband users, much the same way cell-phone providers collect fees from subscribers who exceed their allotted minutes, Time Warner would upend a longstanding pricing strategy among Internet service providers. Typically, phone and cable companies charge flat fees for unlimited access to the Web. "We need a viable model to be able to support the infrastructure of the broadband business," Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt says in an interview. "We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension." Time Warner Cable has 8.4 million broadband FOUR PROPOSED BROADBAND TIERSConsumer advocates and Web site owners say tiered Web-use pricing limits customer choice and could stifle innovation by crimping demand for high-bandwidth services such as online video and music. Cable and phone companies say they need flexibility in setting prices for use of large, expensive, heavily used broadband networks.In the case of Time Warner Cable, customers will be charged from $29.95 to $54.90 a month, based on data consumption and desired connection speed. Customers will be charged $1 for each gigabyte (GB) over their plan's cap. Time Warner Cable offers four cap levels of 5, 10, 20, and 40 GB. A download of a high-definition movie typically eats up about 8 GB. A recent report from Sanford C. Bernstein suggests that a family on the 40 GB plan that streams 7.25 hours of online video a week (a fraction of the 60 hours Americans spend watching TV in a week) could end up spending $200 per month on broadband usage fees. And that's just for video viewing, before factoring in such Internet activities as music downloads and photo sharing. "To put it mildly," says Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett, "the decision to limit data consumption can be expected to have profound implications for [consumer] behavior."But Time Warner says most people are not using that much data. The company's trial in Beaumont, Tex., lasted several months. Of the 10,000 broadband customers enrolled—about 25% of the company's total for Beaumont—about 14% exceeded their cap and had to pay additional fees that averaged about $19 a month. Time Warner Cable also discovered that the top 25% of users consumed 100 times more data than the bottom 25% of users, suggesting an enormous gap in usage patterns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myidisbb Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 sickening. this shit has got to stop. it will kill all online 3rd party business. just updating microsfot updates for one computer can take 500 mb easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavu Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 yah... its sad their targeting areas with few competitors like i live in Rochester.. all we have is verizon and time warner and they havent updated to fiber optics yet here.. so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinite_Vision Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 This is BS. I don't use that much bandwidth but this kind of stuff is BS by Time Warner Cable. Kavu, I don't consider San Antonio and Austin small though. How about they start investing in their infrastructure so that things would run smoothly. More people will have internet access and people will consume more bandwidth because everything is switching to HD. Some websites are all in HD. I hope their users stand up to this BS and I hope their competitions see a chance to gain an upper hand on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavu Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 i see two possabilities.. competition geting the upper hand or.. following them.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinite_Vision Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 i see two possabilities.. competition geting the upper hand or.. following them..I'm hoping for the first one. hehehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myidisbb Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 TW now has a package of 100 gb road runner turbo package a month with 10 mb/1mb for $75 a month. a $1 for each GB over it. but a cap on over charges of $75. so for $150 a month you get 10 mb speed if lucky for unlimted access a month. !@#$%^ that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Lite Posted April 14, 2009 Administrator Share Posted April 14, 2009 Due to the massive amount of backlash from the press as well as customers, Time Warner Cable at the end of last week introduced essentially what is the company's unlimited download plan, for $150 per month. View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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