• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Time Warner Cable cancels usage caps

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Slightly OT, but as far as AT&T DSL goes, does anyone know what constitutes "excessive bandwidth usage" as noted in their terms and conditions?

AT&T Terms and Conditions:
"Guaranteed Price for 24 Months: Price guarantee applies to monthly recurring charge for a period of 24 months from date of service, and does not include taxes, fees or excessive bandwidth usage charges."
 
Originally posted by: tbooth
Slightly OT, but as far as AT&T DSL goes, does anyone know what constitutes "excessive bandwidth usage" as noted in their terms and conditions?

AT&T Terms and Conditions:
"Guaranteed Price for 24 Months: Price guarantee applies to monthly recurring charge for a period of 24 months from date of service, and does not include taxes, fees or excessive bandwidth usage charges."
Click to expand...

It can be anything they want it to be. Excessive is a term like large or big.
 
Surprise, surprise. You have to pay for what you use, it's not free and it's not all you can eat.

However those levels are pretty stupid. Comcast seems to be leading the way in high capacity consumer broadband.

Oh - and it's tracked at the cable modem termination system (CMTS), not the customer modem.
 
Glad to see U-Verse can now be purchased without any TV service. That may come in handy in a few months when TWC tries to push this bullshit.
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
Surprise, surprise. You have to pay for what you use, it's not free and it's not all you can eat.
Click to expand...

My internet contract says I have unlimited bandwidth for the set price. I am paying for what I use. Also, I restrict the majority of my downloading to late night (usually past 12am) to avoid any possible (but highly unlikely) burden on the rest of the subscribers around me.

One thing my friend mentioned to me (he used to work at Time Warner) is that one reason they're doing it is because some people didn't like the high prices of cable internet, but wouldn't sign up for their cheaper unlimited package (with slower speeds). So this is essentially the opposite of that. For someone that browses the web infrequently and doesn't do anything, this provides that same reduced service but in an opposite fashion.

But in a sense, that's just how the model works. Would it make sense for Old Country Buffet to charge you extra as you leave because they think you ate more than the average bear (had to add in the Yogi Bear reference)? No, because that's a silly concept. The entire unlimited concept relies upon the people that don't use much furnishing the higher use rate of the fatties. IMO, Time Warner just wants more money without admitting it and they know they can do it. If they pull that crap in this area, I'll most likely just switch to Verizon DSL. As long as I can get ~500k/s+ with no poor disconnection issues (rather important to me as an online gamer), I'm happy.

EDIT:

I'd also like to add that this annoys me even worse because Time Warner refuses to remove the disparity inside their own regions. I pay the same amount for a 6Mb/s connection as Syracuse does for 10Mb/s connection and both places are in the same section of RR (STNY)!! When my friend was in a meeting at TW, he actually inquired about it and they said it wasn't on their list of priorities ( bringing the local area up to the same speed ).
 
You guys should have paid more attention now. 40GB cap was in place for 6 months already in several markets. The article just says that they are expanding caps to other markets now. AT&T is doing the same with Uverse with caps ranging from 20 to 150GB depending on your package. As sdifox has posted above me Rogers is also capping the service. And of course everybody knows about 250GB Comcast cap.

This is your future ladies and gentlemen. Create national monopoly, prevent customers from accessing competing online video services and milk them for all they are worth. Suddenly French open access model seems so much more attractive now, but no lawmaker will touch it since telcos/cablecos convinced them that their customers have plenty of choice and no regulation is necessary (with fat contributions to seal the deal).

Only Verizon and smaller providers are still providing unmetered service, but if the things go the way they are now, they will probably cave in as well.
 
Originally posted by: fleshconsumed
You guys should have paid more attention now.
Click to expand...

We have been paying attention and if you look back, you'll see threads like this from whenever this news came out. Threads came out during the initial reports of it happening in Texas (hence the remarks about Spidey earlier in this thread as he was an active proponent of the metering). There was also a thread when they talked about bringing it in more markets, but now this is mostly about the news of them acting on their "promise" to bring it out. I was honestly a bit worried that they'd try it in my area of NY. I'm actually rather satisfied with my TW RR service, but I wouldn't be with this.
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
Surprise, surprise. You have to pay for what you use, it's not free and it's not all you can eat.

However those levels are pretty stupid. Comcast seems to be leading the way in high capacity consumer broadband.

Oh - and it's tracked at the cable modem termination system (CMTS), not the customer modem.
Click to expand...

Don't advertise a product if you can't back it up. Don't advertise that I can use your product and experience the rich emersion of the internet and blazingly fast internet, and Rich multimedia content.

Next they'll put a little * next to the print and add
*= typical useage is watching 2 streamed tv shows from sites such as Hulu. or 1 movie download from Netflix. If you want more you will have to pay us $200 more a month for the privildge of using our network that we worked so hard to create a monopoly in your area so you have no choice. Muwahaha!!!!

Well looks like I'm stuck with timewarner if they pull this shit in my area. ATT u-verse won't accept a mastercard/debit card, and I refuse to get a credit card.
 
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.
Click to expand...

Some food for thought: A 56K dialup modem connection can download ~18GB in one month. I assumed 0% overhead because I am sure TWC assumes 0% in their calculation of the cap as well. For $29.95 a month, you also can transfer less then a third as much data as a dialup user. Hooray for progress!
 
Originally posted by: tbooth
Slightly OT, but as far as AT&T DSL goes, does anyone know what constitutes "excessive bandwidth usage" as noted in their terms and conditions?

AT&T Terms and Conditions:
"Guaranteed Price for 24 Months: Price guarantee applies to monthly recurring charge for a period of 24 months from date of service, and does not include taxes, fees or excessive bandwidth usage charges."
Click to expand...

According to that article, AT&T has a cap of 250 GB. I personally have Qwest DSL and I heard they have an unwritten rule that 250 GB = excessive bandwidth as well. It's still a reasonably high cap but I would prefer they come out and say it and simply charge you a little extra if you go over. Apparently if you go over they'll go apeshit on you, possibly disconnecting you temporarily or sending you sternly worded letters. On top of that, they provide no way of tracking your usage each month.

I agree that 40 GB being a top-end cap is absolutely insane. Even their 100 GB "super tier" seems pretty low compared to Comcast and Qwest. 40 GB would be a good bottom-tier or perhaps one step above the bottom tier (give grandmas and other infrequent internet users a 10 GB option for cheaper maybe). Ideally I'd like to see 10 GB as the cheapest one, with further levels at 50 GB, 250 GB, and 1 TB. I buy about 1-2 games a month from Steam and that's enough to push me above at least the first two levels. Add in a few movies on Netflix, and yeah.

Originally posted by: spidey07
Surprise, surprise. You have to pay for what you use, it's not free and it's not all you can eat.

However those levels are pretty stupid. Comcast seems to be leading the way in high capacity consumer broadband.
Click to expand...

I'm fine with caps as long as they're reasonable. 40 GB at the top end is definitely not reasonable. The one good thing about Time Warner's move is that they're providing several options as well as giving people an easy-to-use way of tracking their usage (just like how I can go to Verizon's site and see how many cell phone minutes I've used). I'd also like to see these companies gradually increase their bandwidth caps over time. 250 GB may seem reasonable now for virtually everyone, but in a couple years it'll seem just as bad as 40 GB is today.
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
Hahahah! You actually believe what marketing or advertising from any company says?
Click to expand...

It is both federally and locally illegal to falsely advertise.
 
Originally posted by: Deleted member 4644
It is both federally and locally illegal to falsely advertise.
Click to expand...

It'd only be illegal if they say that you can do it as much as you want. I haven't seen their commercials, but it's not illegal for a car company to talk about their car having 500 horsepower or even its "blazing speed" if you can never use it to its full potential. I believe the cable ads just typically say, "Over x times faster than dial-up! See all the streaming media and such!" If they say it's unlimited and it's really not, then there's an issue.
 
I'd almost rather they all do metered service, just like a utility (power or water). Everyone gets the same speeds (water pressure) but the usage charge would be low on a per gigabyte basis, like say 35 cents.
 
Originally posted by: Lothar
Originally posted by: RaiderJ
Glad I have FIOS!
Click to expand...

This.
Click to expand...

I wish they offered FIOS where I live. It's the same price I'm paying for a 6Mb line for TWC but obviously a hell of a lot faster. Time Warner Cable is the only thing faster than slow DSL around where I live.
 
Originally posted by: trmiv
Screw you Time Warner! Unfortunately they are pretty much my only option for Internet access around here. I can't get DSL where I'm at.
Click to expand...

I have Time Warner now but i can get DSL which i will be doing once this bullshit rolls out. Way to lose customers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top