Time Warner Cable cancels usage caps

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I swear you guys sound like 80 year old men shaking their fist at the utility companies. Internet is a utility and will be billed accordingly. Shake your fist all you want but you will pay for what you use.

All you can eat is gone.

You must work for these guys :disgust:

The BIG issue is stupid low caps. 5GB a month? That sucks horribly, my parents are limited to that but that is because they are on a sprint aircard, so no surprise about there being a tight restriction. 40GB for their "high-end"? What kind of sick joke is that?

There is a difference between reasonable caps and stupid low caps.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I swear you guys sound like 80 year old men shaking their fist at the utility companies. Internet is a utility and will be billed accordingly. Shake your fist all you want but you will pay for what you use.

All you can eat is gone.

You're the one who sounds like a cranky old man. Most of the people in this thread are talking about how high of a cap is reasonable and the possible implications for the industry, and you're over in your corner pretending everyone is whining that they no longer have absolutely unlimited bandwidth.

"Kids these days! They think they deserve everything! Bah!" *dentures*

 

[AnonymouseUser]

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.

So then, if they are charging more to the top 25%, they should give discounts for the bottom 25%.

If/when this comes to Dallas I'll be finding a new ISP.

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I swear you guys sound like 80 year old men shaking their fist at the utility companies. Internet is a utility and will be billed accordingly. Shake your fist all you want but you will pay for what you use.

All you can eat is gone.

You're missing the point. This is America. I don't give a fuck about fair, I just want what benefits me personally the most. I'm *fine* with other people suffering - in fact, that makes it even better, because then I have someone to deride as though circumstances outside of their control are actually their fault. After all, being an asshole is the new national pass time.

In seriousness, this:

Originally posted by: spikespiegal
The question I have is where does the ISP incur a higher support cost in the first place that they are trying to pass on to customers?

Seriously, what's the actual cost difference to the ISP if download 5gig -vs- 500gig a month? Does some hamster on a flywheel somewhere have to punch in for overtime? Their routers have a 'data odometer' that requires them be replaced when they reach a certain packet count like spent fuel rods or something?

It's not their servers spinning data off their hard-drives that's being downloaded by consumers. They just provide the path and infrastructure. It would seem they have to keep the same number of service techs on the payroll regardless of how many movies I download a month.

Is the point. There's no higher cost to TW because of higher service usage. I breath twice as much air as a little kid half my size. So the fuck what?

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser

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.

So then, if they are charging more to the top 25%, they should give discounts for the bottom 25%.

If/when this comes to Dallas I'll be finding a new ISP.

This is my main gripe with what TWC is doing. It's pretty clear that this isn't about stopping abusers, but rather squeezing more money out of the heavy users.

 

[EKKC]

i cant wait for the day when they go bankrupt and have to go ask the government for money.

can our allegedly tech-savvy president do anything about this cable monopoly/oligopoly? this is getting ridiculous

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: EKKC
i cant wait for the day when they go bankrupt and have to go ask the government for money.

can our allegedly tech-savvy president do anything about this cable monopoly/oligopoly? this is getting ridiculous

I wouldn't mind seeing more municipal broadband infrastructure that is either run by the cities themselves or leased out to multiple ISPs to encourage competition. Of course government owned infrastructure would come with it's own share of problems. For example, it would probably be much easier for them to implement some form of censorship if they owned the fiber than it would be if it was owned by the private sector.

 

[spikespiegal]

Is the point. There's no higher cost to TW because of higher service usage. I breath twice as much air as a little kid half my size. So the fuck what?

That's what I'm trying to figure out 😀

From a marketing perspective it makes more sense to upcharge customers for having faster broadband, not p*ss everybody off with data caps.

Internet is a utility and will be billed accordingly. Shake your fist all you want but you will pay for what you use.

Bad analogy. You pay for electricity, gas, water, etc. because you consume it. When you download data you aren't consuming it. Plus, the data that you are moving (most of it pulled from the internet) is data that isn't hosted at the ISP anyways.

 

[Special K]

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.

I live in Austin, use TWC, and just checked my router's statistics. Apparently I average about ~40GB/month of bandwidth, which would put me close to their new upper limit. Looks like I'll be switching to a new ISP this summer, although I think AT&T is the only other choice around here.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I swear you guys sound like 80 year old men shaking their fist at the utility companies. Internet is a utility and will be billed accordingly. Shake your fist all you want but you will pay for what you use.

All you can eat is gone.

you are dumb

its not about "All you can eat " its about caps that are far to fucking low for what the internet is used for

Comcasts 250 GB cap is fine simply because it still allows you to do everything that is LEGAL and be well under it

40GB is a joke even if you never download something illigally and simply use the internet for what it has been promoted as for that past 3 years

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: Special K

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.

I live in Austin, use TWC, and just checked my router's statistics. Apparently I average about ~40GB/month of bandwidth, which would put me close to their new upper limit. Looks like I'll be switching to a new ISP this summer, although I think AT&T is the only other choice around here.

Yeah, AT&T is the only choice, if it's available in your specific area. My folks old home was just outside the range of the boxes, even after 10 years broadband started to get popular.

Two cable companies for me in the new neighborhood, then Verizon for phone service but they don't provide broadband here. 🙁 I need to check Grande's website to see what caps if any they have.

You still work for the same company that you came down here for?

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: microAmp

Originally posted by: Special K

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.

I live in Austin, use TWC, and just checked my router's statistics. Apparently I average about ~40GB/month of bandwidth, which would put me close to their new upper limit. Looks like I'll be switching to a new ISP this summer, although I think AT&T is the only other choice around here.

Yeah, AT&T is the only choice, if it's available in your specific area. My folks old home was just outside the range of the boxes, even after 10 years broadband started to get popular.

Two cable companies for me in the new neighborhood, then Verizon for phone service but they don't provide broadband here. 🙁 I need to check Grande's website to see what caps if any they have.

You still work for the same company that you came down here for?

What neighborhood offers 2 cable companies, and what is the other cable company available besides TWC?

Is Verizon ever going to roll out FIOS here? They've already had it in DFW for quite awhile now, right?

YGPM on the job.

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: microAmp

Originally posted by: Special K

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.

I live in Austin, use TWC, and just checked my router's statistics. Apparently I average about ~40GB/month of bandwidth, which would put me close to their new upper limit. Looks like I'll be switching to a new ISP this summer, although I think AT&T is the only other choice around here.

Yeah, AT&T is the only choice, if it's available in your specific area. My folks old home was just outside the range of the boxes, even after 10 years broadband started to get popular.

Two cable companies for me in the new neighborhood, then Verizon for phone service but they don't provide broadband here. 🙁 I need to check Grande's website to see what caps if any they have.

You still work for the same company that you came down here for?

What neighborhood offers 2 cable companies, and what is the other cable company available besides TWC?

Is Verizon ever going to roll out FIOS here? They've already had it in DFW for quite awhile now, right?

YGPM on the job.

I'm in Buda now, so it's just my little area for two cable companies, Time Warner and Grande Communications (semi-expensive 🙁 ) and Verizon telephone service. I'm doubtful if Verizon will roll out FIOS here also, I check their site from time to time to see if broadband is available here with no luck.

You might want to check Earthlink too, I checked my folks old address in Austin, between Brodie and Manchaca and it's available there, cable to boot, not DSL. Not sure if they'll be subject to tiny caps or not.

Don't know anything about DFW, I could ask some friends that live in the Dallas area.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Anubis
40GB is a joke even if you never download something illigally and simply use the internet for what it has been promoted as for that past 3 years

The issue seems to be that some companies have simply ignored the sort of digital revolution that occurred over the Internet. Gone are the days when the only movement on a webpage is from marquee tags. You've got interactive flash everywhere streaming videos and crap to you... it's like digital bukkake.

These providers sat there ignoring the shift toward real-time content and believed everyone was still viewing static pages. The days when you had to go out to Blockbuster to get your movie for the night are gone... you can simply hit a few buttons on your remote and have a video streamed to you. These companies are seeing higher use from more and more people and they have no idea what to do.

Originally posted by: spikespiegal
That's what I'm trying to figure out 😀

From a marketing perspective it makes more sense to upcharge customers for having faster broadband, not p*ss everybody off with data caps.

You're forgetting a very simple fact: in a way, Time Warner is a reseller. Not in the same way as in places like Japan where an ISP is literally nothing more than one that resells someone else's stuff. Time Warner bridges you to their connection via their own cable lines. But beyond that extent, they have to pay for their connection to the great Linksys router that is the Intarwebz.

EDIT: Silly me, the router is a linksys not a d-link!

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Beev
I use TW and have actually been very happy with them, but if this change goes into affect in my area I'm dropping them instan-fucking-taneously.

 

[robphelan]

i'm in san antonio - well, a little north of there...

i'm in a price lock guarantee for 1 or 2 years.. when they start metering i'm going to bitch that it's a breach on contract & move to GVTC - the only other cable provider around.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: robphelan
i'm in san antonio - well, a little north of there...

i'm in a price lock guarantee for 1 or 2 years.. when they start metering i'm going to bitch that it's a breach on contract & move to GVTC - the only other cable provider around.

They usually have provisions built in that say they can change stuff and you have to live with it

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski

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.

Have you tried phoning them and talking to a human to see if they can resolve the issue?

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Another reason Comcrap can fsck off and die.

Glad you are paying attention spartan 😉

Originally posted by: Deleted member 4644

Originally posted by: spidey07
Hahahah! You actually believe what marketing or advertising from any company says?

It is both federally and locally illegal to falsely advertise.

This.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca

Originally posted by: spidey07
I swear you guys sound like 80 year old men shaking their fist at the utility companies. Internet is a utility and will be billed accordingly. Shake your fist all you want but you will pay for what you use.

All you can eat is gone.

You're the one who sounds like a cranky old man. Most of the people in this thread are talking about how high of a cap is reasonable and the possible implications for the industry, and you're over in your corner pretending everyone is whining that they no longer have absolutely unlimited bandwidth.

"Kids these days! They think they deserve everything! Bah!" *dentures*

spidey07 hits strawman for critical damage!

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: God Mode
I can burn a gig on just basic fucking browsing (ie: no video etc). With all these scripts, flash and images on websites these days, wtf.

I have found that too. Hell I can burn a gig on anandtech...

 

[racolvin]

Originally posted by: Aikouka
... You've got interactive flash everywhere streaming videos and crap to you... it's like digital bukkake.

:laugh: Ok, I admit that one got a spit-take out of me. Gotta remember not to be drinking water while I'm reading forum postings ...

:beer:

 

[her209]

Is it legal for a company to change the terms of the contract simply by having the words, "contract subject to change" in the contract? I ask because couldn't the price of service be raised by the provider (after the fact) and the customer would have no option but to pay it or incur a early termination fee?

 

[robphelan]

Originally posted by: her209
Is it legal for a company to change the terms of the contract simply by having the words, "contract subject to change" in the contract? I ask because couldn't the price of service be raised by the provider (after the fact) and the customer would have no option but to pay it or incur a early termination fee?

perhaps small items they can, but they can't change the contract to state you are now allowing them to sleep with your wife overy other Friday and twice on Tuesdays..

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Another reason Comcrap can fsck off and die.

Glad you are paying attention spartan 😉

Meh, one monopoly or another. I used both for < 1 year, and was dissatisfied with the service. TW RR for being horrendously overpriced (no competition) and Comcrap for dropping my connection for no reason every other day or so. Annoying.

I will miss my unlimited download + 5GB/day upload internet connection...