Public rage stalls Time Warner trials of consumption-based internet
By Laura June 
posted April 16th 2009 11:22AM
posted April 16th 2009 11:22AM
Time Warner's new data capping broadband scheme was never expected to win any popularity contests, and the details of its plans are so frustrating, that this probably should not come as a surprise. Regardless, it looks like the company's plan to further roll out testing of the consumption-based billing method has been foiled, or at least stalled, because it couldn't find enough customers to participate in the testing. TWC had planned to test in several locations, including San Antonio and Austin, Texas, but the response has apparently been so negative, and there were so many complaints, that the company has "delayed" the trials until October. So... maybe if we keep moaning about it the plan will be abandoned altogether? Here's to hoping, anyway. [Via The Register]
OTA Antenna for your locals didn't work?
Just start cancelling in droves when they roll out the test. If everyone jumps ship, then they will see it's not a good pricing plan. They can't make a dime if everyone leaves. I say start a boycott and cancel anyways to show THEM and other companies that might want to follow suit, to think twice. This is a step backwards! We moved away from metered time back when AOL was charging 2.95 an hour. then it was 19.95 all you could consume a month to back to metered? What CRAP! If my cable provider does this you best bet I will leave them! (COX im talking to you!)
The joys of legal local monopolies. Greedy bastards. Actually come October, they will probably just implement the new bandwidth caps regardless.
Cable industry motto: Offer less, jack the rates regularly, and rape the consumer.
Good to hear! Talk about a greedy way to suck money from their customers in already hard economic times. Haven't they already learned what GREED can do to an economy (case in point - the housing bubble and AIG mess).
I'll happily stick with Verizon. Their support is horrible but their internet service - once set up - is great!
Woo hoo!
Consumers: 1, Big Business: 4764598764392857629
www.stopthecap.com
Let us all do what we can to stop this nonsense!
TM is a massive company with long-reaching arms- they were huge in affecting photographs, not raising editorial rates for their magazines for years (while giving huge bounces to their CEO- sound familiar?).
@Ian :
I used to use NetStat too, but since updating my Limksys router to Tomato firmware I've been pretty happy with the router's ability to monitor usage stats. Definitely worth lookign into if your router supports 3rd party firmwares and it doesn't matter what you have hooked up to it.
after 7 years of TW I finally switched to AT&T's Uverse (I wanted Fios but they didn't have it in my area)... regardless AT&T is waaaayyy better then TW at every level. Customer service alone is reason enough to switch cause TW's suck at it. TW = dbags.
This is probably the most ridiculous thing any major company has tried to force down our throats for a long time...
Well besides Vista, but that's a different story.
once i heard they had begun with their "test run" of this ridiculous bandwidth capping, i switched over to verizon fios and let me tell you.... it's probably the best decision i've ever made in my life as a consumer... no lag, pages load up INSTANTLY, and best of all, no bandwidth caps... im going insane with the downloads and have already filled up an entire HDD (250gb).
if you can get fios in your area, DO IT... not only is it the best thing in the world, but it's gonna teach those scumbags at time warner not to mess with their customers.
I was just telling my roommate that I wanted to get rid of TW cable (I already switched to Verizon DSL years ago) to show them that squeezing a nickle will cost them a dime. Hopefully, they're getting the message. We allow this to continue, and we'll all be bent over a barrel like we are with our cell plans.
I see a Twitter campaign in our futures.
I'm going to call the San Antonio Time Warner and tell them I will drop their service if they go to this tier plan.
They are still going to monitor people, look at the second paragraph in the link. What they'll probably do is after the data is collected, they will start contacting only those high users without a public notice. http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/technology/Time_Warner_drops_meter_plan_for_SA.html