Man, Time Warner Cable -- you are some shady players. Hot on the heels of the ISP's decision to
withdraw DOCSIS 3.0 trials from areas that have
rejected its tiered billing plan, we're hearing that TWC's teamed up with Embarq to persuade the North Carolina state government into banning community-owned broadband services. Why? Well, turns out the 47,000 residents of Wilson, NC got tired of paying for slow broadband, so the city government launched its own fiber ISP called Greenlight that offers some pretty solid packages ranging from $99 for 81 cable channels, unlimited phone service, and 10Mbps (down
and up) internet to $170 for every single channel including premiums and 20Mbps up/down internet. (There's even a "secret" 100Mbps up/down internet plan.) Of course, these prices blow TWC and Embarq out of the water -- the comparable basic Time Warner plan has fewer channels and less bandwidth for an "introductory rate" of $137 -- and rather than compete, the two giants decided to lobby the North Carolina legislature into proposing bills that outlaw community services like Greenlight. The argument is that the big companies can't turn a profit and compete against a community-owned enterprise that essentially sells service for cost, but we're not buying it -- if anything, TWC and Embarq can invest the extra profits they've been earning in other areas into building services that would blow Greenlight out of the water. Yep, it's definitely some dirty pool -- does anyone have any positive feelings left for these behemoths?
[Thanks, William; image courtesy of IndyWeek]
Read - DailyTech article
Read - IndyWeek article
Read - Greenlight home page
Read - Save NC Broadband blog
posted April 22nd 2009 7:03PM
wow, I really hate TWC because of this. Not as much as I hate charter cable; but still...This small local company is providing excellent services to their customers and decent prices and TWC gets all pissed off when a competitor in ONE of their markets starts making more money than them. Competition in the market is the best thing there could be. TWC should quit their bitchin and let the little companies have a go at making a profit for once instead of just monopolizing the market share and becoming the only provider available and charging outrageous prices for services. I for one, welcome competition with open arms.
I find it disturbing that people commenting here for some reason think that TWC is operating in a free market environment. Anywhere there is a monopoly with barriers to competition is NOT a free market. If a company can lobby to create laws to block competition it is NOT a free market.
Boyprodigy1 @ Apr 22nd 2009 8:52PM
"And this is why i consider myself a socialist..."
this comment is a joke. I can assume it was made in reference to being a socialist because it would curb TWC activities. Socialism would be the government stepping in and regulating the competition out of existence so TWC can continue to have its monopoly. Capitalism would be letting the community owned internet provider compete against TWC WITHOUT government interference.
@truth101
why should people be able to buy things at cost? why should a company not be able to make a GOOD profit? why should a ceo not be able to make what he is worth?
"capitalism is all about selling people things FAR above what they are actually worth"
this is a blatantly FALSE statement. Capitalism is about selling things for what the free market will bare. What someone is willing to pay for it. Capitalism is all about letting other people enter a market and sell a better product for less if they can.
socialism/communism takes all the incentives to create better products at lower prices off the table.
Cox and BellSouth/AT&T fought and lost the same battle in Lafayette, Louisiana. Publicly-owned LUS FTTH now offers 10MBps symmetrical for $29/month, 50MBps symmetrical for $56/month, no bundle necessary. Population 110,000. Service is in first-phase rollout - a couple weeks after the first connections, Cox announced plans to roll out DOCSIS 3 (at 150-200% high rates per MBps) and merge our market with New Orleans'.
They're just giving themselves a worse rep every single day.
remember : 1mbps != 1mb/s
1mpbs is about 128ko/s
Publicly owned utilitites can be run properly without need for tax money bailouts. My place has its own utilities including hydro, water and natural gas. Funny, there is always enough money for city projects, and I pay much less than I would in the city next to us with private utilities and no money in the coffers. I think we need public FIOS network too, although Roger's CAD45 a month looks rather competitive for 8MB/s.
That's CAD45 for 8Mb/s, still a good deal.
I found it a bit funny to find this article on an AOL Time Warner Website.
We, as a people, must star throwing rocks at all Cable company executives. It is a moral imperative.
TWC is a monumental ripoff and someone should make them go away. If I had another option for my HS internet I would have left long ago. We need FIOS in Brooklyn!
Same thing happened to us in Lafayette, LA will Cox Communications and AT&T. City-owned utility decided to add fiber to the home and it took 3 years of litigation to finally go ahead (we won). We pay similar to Greenlight. www.lusfiber.com
TWC SUCKS!
@loocas: by definition 1 megabit equals 1000 kilobits. You are thinking of a megabyte which is 1024 kilobytes.
This is completely disgusting.
Goes to show you that there is no distinction between "liberals" and "conservatives". Members from both parties are voting to make Greenlight illegal. The ONLY reason they are voting? MONEY.
Buy your laws, ladies and gentlemen. All you need is enough money.
You can't get away from the fact that this is inherently a political discussion.
I'm in the camp that government shouldn't provide goods and services that should be left in the private sector (Multi channel TV, VOIP phone services, internet connection) but should provide infrastructure (Roads, rail lines, power right of way, etc..)
With this being said, it would have been interesting if Greenlight was handled just as a bits highway.. and let numerous service providers provide the VOIP and video services in an A la carte fashion through the city owned infrastructure.
It's a thought anyway.
This is just terrible - why doesn't TWC compete instead of suing?
It's stupid - if you wanted to be better than another person, work towards it - you're not going to
sue the other person, are you? (Well, we know TWC will.)
Why don't we have an "Embarq" in New York
The sad truth is that if you have one company that has to make a profit and another that doesn't and they are both offering the same services then the profitmaking enterprise will lose the price war. You can see a good example of this in the healthcare arena. The US's privately insured healthcare is far more expensive than healthcare in Canada, but it is also more expensive than publicly funded healthcare like the VA hospital system.
Our capitalist system is supposed to create competition so the consumer gets the best possible price, but I do not see that working. Healthcare costs go up every few months, with no bargains in sight and although I have lived in 7 major cities in the last 10 years there never seems to be enough competition in the cable industry to make the prices go down in any of those places.
Maybe it is just me, but given a choice to give a chunk of my cash that I pay for services to a company's stockholders and pay multimillion dollar executive salaries or not, I would choose to not. Large corporations are always looking for a way to squeeze a last few bucks out of you, and that is understandable because their shareholders would complain otherwise. Government entities have a mission to serve the public, not to make a profit. Even if the government entities are not that efficient, in fact even if they are a little corrupt they are still more closely aligned with the public interest than most corporate entities.
Dear Engadget,
If the government starts providing me with gadget news on the internet, none of us will be subject to ads on your site.
dude......you're looking at a bull through a funhouse mirror. need to check your head, son.
tomo
san francisco, ca
So expensive rates !!!!! In france we have 100 download with 50 upload with 150 TV channels and telephone unlimited to 97 country for 30€ per month ^^ (not everywhere but in most of the big towns)
http://www.free.fr/fibre-optique/
or
http://www.numericable.fr/home.php