Time Warner Cable lays out broadband capping plans, says $150 for "unlimited" use
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted April 10th 2009 10:27AM
posted April 10th 2009 10:27AM
In a move seemingly designed to further our frustrations with broadband providers, Time Warner Cable has soft-announced an "unlimited" package once its new data caps go into place... for an affordable $150 monthly charge. Responding to criticism over the company's plans to start capping usage and charging for overages, Landel Hobbs clarified the provider's stance, letting users know that the capping would be limited to a $75 ceiling, thus (when paired with its top tier plan) would provide "virtually unlimited" usage. Virtually unlimited. Here's a rundown of what the COO proposes:- A limited package for "light users" at 1GB/month, 768KB down / 128KB up, with overage charges of $2/GB/month.
- Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo packages at 10GB / 20GB / 40GB / and 60GB caps, respectively, and overage charges at $1/GB/month.
- A big daddy, 100GB Turbo package at $75/month with overage fees of $1/GB, which, when coupled with that magic threshold of $75 in charges, becomes the "unlimited" plan.
[Via eWeek]
HUH?!?!?!
IN THE USA?
is this real?
Can anyone confirm if this is for just Residential customers or does it affect Business Class customers as well? I called and Residential customer service knew exactly what this was but, then transfered me to Business Class customer support and they haven't heard anything about this. Just curious.
oh and one thing too!?!
does it really take a lot of extra electricity to let people connect to the internet at high speed?
maybe tw need to look into getting ATOM based gateways/switches etc!??! i dont know what is wrong.
IS THIS USA?!?!
i am confused.. someone please explain, im really confused...
@ chefgon_ign
im voting with my wallet, and if enough people do the same, then TWC and all other providers will be forced to lift the cap, and especially if MS and netflix and all other streaming providers step in then something will need to happen...
I'm glad I have Clearwire.
Wow do I love my FiOS right now.
These numbers seem extraordinarily low for an entire month's worth of service. They are pitching this like they are just going after the 1 user in 1,000 who is running P2P 24-7 sucking down dozens of pirated movies every month. A cap of like 5-10TB would be more appropriate to go after those kind of people. This is going to hammer mainstream users who aren't doing anything more than playing a little multiplayer XBOX, and watching a few Netflix or Hulu shows.
Looks to me like they are trying to smother Netflix streaming movies and Hulu - forcing their users to use their higher-priced PPV instead. Either that or they got more serious troubles. Wouldn't surprise me that they have been pocketing all the money they should have been spending on network infrastructure upgrades and now they are realizing their users are swamping their rickety, underbuilt plant.
Either way, this is a rocket ship to disaster for them. Nobody is going to tolerate huge cable bill surprises just for watching a little video or playing too much XBOX.
Looks like Verizon is looking smarter and smarter.
Way to make your own coffin TWC, no wonder your parent company left you, good luck with all of this, you're going to need it.
Well, if they start capping, I start shopping, its that simple. I don't do any bit torrent, or netflix downloading (yet), and have NO idea what my usage is, but Im sure Brighthouse (time warner and Road Runner) will let me know.
Dear Time Warner,
Austin is not Beaumont. You've been served, beeeotch.
Sincerely,
Austin
Fuck capping... and censorship!
We pay more for less speed here in the U.S. These greedy people should be ashamed of themselves.
They do this in Canada already
Exactly Bob. And we bend over and take it.
They are far better than the DSL I can get. I can't dump them, but I would move and I would move to somewhere I could get FIOS.. or anything else.
I think one of the goals is to try to protect their Cable TV business/cash in on online content. Somewhat Ironic as if I had to use these plans the first thing I would ax is my cable TV and watch my bandwidth like a hawk.
And now as professional I will be recommending every client to switch or go with some one else.
Time Warner can take their bandwidth caps and well...you get the idea...,
and yes, I realize who owns Weblogs Inc....which owns Engadget.
not anymore TIME WARNER and TWC are now separate
$150 per month? Fookin Idiots! I will dump them like liquid diarrhea so fast, the shiat wont have a chance to hit the fan. Hey, DSL is already better than the 1mbps they give me and promise 10mbps. you just don't get what you pay for with this lousy substandard company. I will be switching by the end of the month.
So now that people are being charged for bandwidth does this mean advertisers have to pay us?
Like it or not, this is the way things are in some countries. Broadband internet access is becoming a service for rich people only. This is just the beginning. Any companies that provide services via the internet (online backup, video streaming, VOIP, etc) should be wary of this.
Makes me feel very lucky to now be in the UK, where I have just got my 50meg connection for £35 per month (about 50 bucks) - and it's unlimited with no caps , traffic shaping or any of that stuff.
Found a UK comparison here:
http://www.thehermesproject.com/2009/04/time-warner-amends-high-use-charging.html
150 bucks? That's still quite cheap! I'm paying a bit over 200 bucks/month for a 12Mbps line here in the middle east. Most expats are still on stone age 1 and 2Mbps connections out here.
So can we get some kind of petition going or is there one already started somewhere?
"Pip @ Apr 10th 2009 2:38PM
In the state of WI we recently passed a bill that sets up a group of people who "Okay" a cable provider to sell in the state. Once they are okayed, they are allowed to set up shop and sell their services ANYWHERE IN THE STATE. It was hailed as a great way to open up for competition and lower prices. I live in Madison and we've always had a single cable provider that was contracted to the city up until this was passed.
It's been a year. NOTHING HAS CHANGED."
AT&T provides U-verse TV service in Madison WI and in surrounding cities. I was just in their store today.
Dave
It should be illegal to charge based on something that is hard to monitor in real time. Those caps are pathetic. I would understand 50GB for basic 100GB for premium and 200GB for ultra premium and unlimited.
ARE THEY FUCKING KIDDING WITH A 10GB TIER? I mean I know some people just surf the web and send e-mail, but what if their kid decides to watch Hulu? All of a sudden this family will start paying for overages?
How about then confrontations in the family about how they need to now pay more for internet because the kid/wife/whoever used a bunch Hulu. How about giving your wi-fi password to friends who stop over? Now you can't because lord knows what they will do with your internet now and how much it will cost you.
FUCK TIME WARNER!!!! Everybody switch to something else if you can. Again FUCK TIME WARNER!!!!
"It should be illegal to charge based on something that is hard to monitor in real time."
Your electric company and water utility have been doing it for a long time. Do you think they should have "unlimited usage" plans and charge everyone the same amount regardless of quantity used?
My local cable company has had a tiered setup for a while (levels currently at 3 Gb, 15 Gb, and 40 Gb, [used to be less]), and they claim that less than 2% of their customers use over 40 Gb and only about 10% use over 15. And this is in a fairly upper middle class college town.
Now, I don't know how old these numbers are so it could be that I'm way behind the times, but I really suspect that a lot of people commenting here are in that 2% and don't really know what more typical usage is.
Not for my opinion:
I am in favor of metered usage. I'm not defending the price or Gb limits of the tiers of either TCW or my cable company, but believe in the principle that people who use a lot of a resource should pay proportionally to the amount they use. It always bothered me that I, living alone, had to pay the same price that the big house next door got to split between six roommates.
I mean, surely no one here would think it fair were the electric company to charge me the same flat rate to heat and light my
Sorry to say that but guys they rip you off... even in my country which is poorest i whole Europe union i have few options in my town one of which is Fiber optic to home for 13Euro/Month 20mbits download/upload is 1:1 and that is unlimited without traffic
Bold Broadband Policy: Yes We Can, America
http://snipurl.com/yes-we-can-america
That's stupid, wouldn't you prefer the $75 plan, so if you go over your 100gb by say 3gb, you'll only pay $78 instead of $150.
So does this mean the broadband speeds will be faster as a result because initially they were talking about how the aggressive users were fucking it up for everybody so if we are doing this in tiers, does this mean that service overall will improve or the aggressive users will be charged more for slowing everybody up?
@ louis
Actually it would be more like paying for a car to have a certain accelration/top speed, then paying and additional surcharge for gas after you drive it so many miles. Mind you that, you are stil in fact paying for the gas in the first place with the other services and software/hardware you are pushing through your system. Then on top of that, have the company laugh in your face as your car is forced to only drive down streets with stop signs and behind or with 100s of other cars so that you never actually reach that peak performance that you are paying for.