Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

[ShepardG]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Yeah, we ffxi'ers aren't the only ones getting straight pissed at this, apparently congressmen and senators are involved getting involved, and their pretty pissed. I was reading somewhere the FCC is having a big meeting about the future of our technology infrastructure (aka, The internet) and how it's going to be regulated.

I have always hated the fact, that Cox, which has most of the town next to mine, has a history of stellar service and support, and 5 miles up the road, I have mediacomm....who has not. I ordered Phone/internet/digi cable from them, and my phone never worked once, not one fucking time, for 4 f'ing months. It was ridiculus. I had to call and have a person come out to my house 8 times, just to get them to refund me my money, and they would never give me a straight answer.

Slight more on topic:

Fuck TW.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

The heavens open and the angels rejoice!!

Time Warner Cable shelves plan to cap Internet use - Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com

"Time Warner Cable Inc. is shelving its plan to bill customers based on how much Internet traffic they generate, following mounting public and political outcry.

Time Warner Cable's capitulation doesn't bode well for the future of metered billing of the Internet, in which people who use more bandwidth pay more.

Frontier Communications Corp., a Time Warner Cable rival in one key test market, Rochester, N.Y., also has dropped its plans for metering Internet use.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

"We have gotten hundreds of calls from Time Warner customers into our call centers," said Ann Burr, the head of Frontier's Rochester unit, in an interview with The Associated Press. "I guess it's been a public relations crisis for Time Warner."

Stamford, Conn.-based Frontier had 579,900 Internet subscribers at the end of the year. New York-based Time Warner Cable had 8.7 million, making it the third-largest Internet service provider in the country.

The cable company started testing metered billing in Beaumont, Texas, last year, offering plans with 5 gigabytes to 40 gigabytes of monthly traffic, then charging $1 extra for each gigabyte over that.

Many ISPs cap their subscribers' monthly traffic usage, but the thresholds are usually much higher — at Comcast Corp., it's 250 gigabytes. It's also very unusual for ISPs to charge extra when customers go over their limits.

By charging by the gigabyte, the cable company said it hoped to shift the cost of providing Internet service, and the cost of upgrading the network, from those who use the Internet the least to those who use it the most. All ISPs find a small percentage of Internet users consuming most of the bandwidth, usually by downloading or watching movies.

But Lauren Rich Fine, research director for ContentNext Media, called consumption-based broadband billing "a huge step backwards."

She added, "Inner-city youth's ability to go online is the best way to give them broad access societally. Consumption-based models will end up being a bigger burden on less affluent people."


And your voice shall be heard!

[Feba]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

From what I've seen, it's more a matter of putting it on hold, not stopping altogether.


You're still going to get raped, they're just going to be kind enough to use lube now.

[Mhurron]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Not happening and later are not the same thing.

Time Warner Cable to shelve new Internet pricing plan : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

"Time Warner Cable is postponing plans for new caps and fees on Internet data use in the Triad and other test markets."

“It’s clear from the response we’ve gotten from Greensboro and other areas that there’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Buscher said. “What we heard is no one knows what their usage is.”
The company stated in a news release that it will shelve the trials "while the customer education process continues."

Personally I still see no problem with it, especially since Cable is a shared bus network.

[Susurrus]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Protip: switch to DSL. As far as I know, there is no DSL provider out there that has caps.

I had the option of Time Warner Cable or Qwest DSL. Glad I went with Qwest, went w/ the 7M down package.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Not happening and later are not the same thing.

Time Warner Cable to shelve new Internet pricing plan : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

"Time Warner Cable is postponing plans for new caps and fees on Internet data use in the Triad and other test markets."

“It’s clear from the response we’ve gotten from Greensboro and other areas that there’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Buscher said. “What we heard is no one knows what their usage is.”
The company stated in a news release that it will shelve the trials "while the customer education process continues."

Personally I still see no problem with it, especially since Cable is a shared bus network.

You didn't see the problem with going from $49.95 to $149.95 to get the same service? That was the original plan. The "Scaled down" plans were not much better. There was going to be a protest this weekend outside of TWC's store in Greensboro, this is probably in response to that.

I hope the protest still happens anyway, they need to be told what they don't want to hear.

Look, what this is about - and all this is about - is Time Warner being butthurt over losses on their bloated packages because people have come to prefer the likes of Netflix and Hulu for movies. Its why the FCC is towing the "net neutrality" line on TWC pretty hard. TWC wants to abuse the stipulatations of the stimulus money distribution to ensure they can stick it to these content providers by scaring thier customers with bandwidth caps.

What if SE came out and said "Everyone that does a TP burn PT has to pay $30 more per month. We don't like it, but we won't stop you so long as you pay extra. If you do TP burn on your standard subscription, its an extra dollar per hour each time you do."

That's what Time Warner is doing. This is what Sony and the RIAA were doing years ago with Napster - rather than get with the times and compete with what they percieve to be the problem, they instead exploit or punish the customer.

Were MP3s wrong?

What's going to happen is TWC is going to do the Sony/RIAA approach. They seem to think they know whats best for thier customers and even moreso than the customers and the FCC combined.

They are going to get owned by the likes of Verizon FiOS, Clearwire and any other provider within spitting distance of thier service. I'm done, change or not, I'm going with Clearwire until FiOS gets out here in NC. Its not like I watched cable TV anyway.

TWC needs to look at the MP3 thing and learn from history, but then, Hilter didn't learn from Napoleon, did he? While they were all worried about taking down Napster and other P2P filesharing sites, Apple came in, set up iTune and iPod and set a new course for distribution in the music industry.

Same thing is going to happen with this if TWC chooses to persist. You don't take on the Russians in the dead of winter, you'll lose. TWC isn't ready to change when their customers long since have, those customers will move on.

Time Warner could probably set up a service to compete with Netflix and Hulu and that would make these bandwidth cap plans they're not giving up completely unneeded.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Protip: switch to DSL. As far as I know, there is no DSL provider out there that has caps.

I had the option of Time Warner Cable or Qwest DSL. Glad I went with Qwest, went w/ the 7M down package.

DSL in my area SUCKS BALLS. You know how bad it is? I always have 2 connections in case one goes out (thats how internet addicted we all are). We used to have our alt be a DSL connection and changed with 2 other providers in the area with each one sucking worse than the other. Eventually we went to DIAL UP AOL and had a better connection, so thats what we use now.

They are going to get owned by the likes of Verizon FiOS, Clearwire and any other provider within spitting distance of thier service. I'm done, change or not, I'm going with Clearwire until FiOS gets out here in NC. Its not like I watched cable TV anyway.

Ya, when its available here we'll be switching over too. I'll cut my cable package down to something more reasonable since we rarely watch it anyways. I prefer d/l'ing my shows...........much to TW's dismay!

[Akashimo]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Makes me so glad to have FiOS already :3
Though I shudder the day when I actually end up going out on my own and end up with *gulp* comcast, cox or time warner ><
On a scale of ISPs I've experienced so far, going from worst to best:
DSL when I was in PA
AOL both dial up and tctp
IBM > AT&T Global dial-up (56k external modems ftw!)
Cox Cable Internet - Verizon DSL (both in tie here, can't really say which was worse in reliablity)
Verizon FiOS

I shudder the day these companies are trying to aim for happening.... well who wants to start a free isp to have ready when it comes?

[Durahansolo]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

/Sigh I remember back when ISPs were free...I used to have Altavista dial-up and when that service died I switched to Juno Dial-Up. You could only get on Juno for a certain amount of hours before you were cancelled for that month, eventually I'd just create a new username and start over for free. I did this probably about 50x. Eventually that fell through and I switched to Netzero and did the exact same thing when the hours would run over. Eventually Netzero caught on to that so we started paying for NetZero. After that I got a job and I bought Comcast Cable for the house so me and my mom can share even though I use the majority of the bandwidth.

[Mhurron]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

You didn't see the problem with going from $49.95 to $149.95 to get the same service? That was the original plan.

That's only the original plan if you transfer over 100GB+ a month (~15-20 uncompressed DVD images). If you're moving that much data over a residential plan, yes, you should pay a lot more for the needed upgrades to support you. Most people don't. Most people who have an 'unlimited' plan will continue to pay $75 a month for their access. Honestly the only stupid thing Time Warner did here was not provide a bandwidth monitor before the change, but they don't really want to do that because people might see that e-mail doesn't actually require an unlimited plan.

There's a whole lot of things to complain about regarding broadband in the US, but this isn't one of them. This is just an easy one. In fact, you want something to complain about? Something important? Something a US Senator really should look into? Maybe people in NY should ask their Senator to stop wasting his time on penny-ante billing changes and start asking questions about where those billions that were paid out to telcos to wire the country for broadband in the mid 90's went?

Oh you didn't know about that? Don't worry, it would require work and learning on the part of the population, so no one cares. Hint: The country already paid for 45MB fiber to the home. That's to *EVERY HOME* in the US, by the way.

What if SE came out and said "Everyone that does a TP burn PT has to pay $30 more per month. We don't like it, but we won't stop you so long as you pay extra. If you do TP burn on your standard subscription, its an extra dollar per hour each time you do."

YAY it's retarded, convoluted, unrealistic analogy time!

You want to compare this to something? When you show up at many restaurants with more then 8 people, you pay an extra fee because of the extra burdan your party is causing the staff. No one complains about this.

However a much better one is something everyone grumbles about but no one really cares about. Long Distance Phone plans. Guess what, it doesn't cost any more to call across town then to call India. It doesn't cost any more because for the past 40 years or so everything except the last mile has been a packet switched network all over the world. The same packet switched network a whole lot of the internet runs on. You still pay more, and no one cares.

So wheres the outrage? Where's the protests over charging more for the same amount of work? Calling long distance doesn't cost the phone company anymore then a local call, unlike downloading massive amounts of data constantly, which does.

TWC needs to look at the MP3 thing and learn from history ... Apple came in, set up iTune and iPod and set a new course for distribution in the music industry.

You're holding up Apple as an example that Time Warner needs to follow? Apple who just introduced tiered pricing? Apple who makes you pay more for popular and/or new releases. Apple who makes it extremely easy to find the expensive songs but hides the cheap ones?

It sounds like Time Warner did learn from Apple.

[Feba]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

. Most people who have an 'unlimited' plan will continue to pay $75 a month for their access.

Then they're idiots. You don't go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, have an appetizer, then complain that the man behind you is eating a lot more. And if you went to a buffet, and they announced while you were eating that they're going to start charging you for eating so much, despite the big fat "ALL YOU CAN EAT" sign out front, you'd be more than a little pissed.

And for the record, I find your examples of long-distance and charges for larger groups to be equally wrong. I don't eat with large groups, or use phones often, and I have to imagine the same goes for a lot of other people. Really, if I wanted to talk to someone in India, I'd use Skype for that reason. But why there isn't more outrage in general? Maybe because paying a bit more for those things isn't a big deal-- the way these companies are attempting to use these fees borders on attempting to control the media. Charging people who don't get their media from you-- those who would watch a movie on Hulu instead of paying for it On Demand, using a cheaper VOIP service instead of the one the cable company offers. And because the ISP already has monopolies on internet service in many areas, they also start interfering with the ability for other related services to compete. It's a small step from saying "you have to pay extra to watch those movies, even though they're free" to "you have to pay extra to watch any movies we don't provide". With the lines between TV, phones, and the World Wide Web blurring, it's dangerously close to starting net neutrality issues.

Oh you didn't know about that? Don't worry, it would require work and learning on the part of the population, so no one cares. Hint: The country already paid for 45MB fiber to the home. That's to *EVERY HOME* in the US, by the way.

Government support of these institutions is a major reason people are pissed. They're given monopolies, they're given the right to dig up lawns (and it's not uncommon to see that job screwed up), they're given funding that's supposed to go towards building networks that should have no problem with most users-- and yet they still feel the need to gouge consumers and claim they can't remain profitable otherwise.

[Mhurron]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Then they're idiots. You don't go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, have an appetizer, then complain that the man behind you is eating a lot more. And if you went to a buffet, and they announced while you were eating that they're going to start charging you for eating so much, despite the big fat "ALL YOU CAN EAT" sign out front, you'd be more than a little pissed.

You do when that one whale who can hardly walk causes the buffet to have to raise it's prices for everyone to accommodate that one person.

And for the record, I find your examples of long-distance and charges for larger groups to be equally wrong.

YOU don't get gouged by long distance plans, so it's ok to do it but because YOU use something and your choice of usage is suddenly going to mean you pay more its HOLY FUCKING SHIT THEY CANT DO THAT CALL THE GUBERMENTTOSTOPTHEMWHARRGARBL!

You are a bigger strain on the system then grandma, pay more for it's upkeep.

support of these institutions is a major reason people are pissed. They're given monopolies, they're given the right to dig up lawns (and it's not uncommon to see that job screwed up), they're given funding that's supposed to go towards building networks that should have no problem with most users-- and yet they still feel the need to gouge consumers and claim they can't remain profitable otherwise.

None of this has anything to do with the outrage. It's all about people thinking they have some right to internet service at some price.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

That's only the original plan if you transfer over 100GB+ a month (~15-20 uncompressed DVD images). If you're moving that much data over a residential plan, yes, you should pay a lot more for the needed upgrades to support you. Most people don't. Most people who have an 'unlimited' plan will continue to pay $75 a month for their access. Honestly the only stupid thing Time Warner did here was not provide a bandwidth monitor before the change, but they don't really want to do that because people might see that e-mail doesn't actually require an unlimited plan.

There's a whole lot of things to complain about regarding broadband in the US, but this isn't one of them. This is just an easy one. In fact, you want something to complain about? Something important? Something a US Senator really should look into? Maybe people in NY should ask their Senator to stop wasting his time on penny-ante billing changes and start asking questions about where those billions that were paid out to telcos to wire the country for broadband in the mid 90's went?

Oh you didn't know about that? Don't worry, it would require work and learning on the part of the population, so no one cares. Hint: The country already paid for 45MB fiber to the home. That's to *EVERY HOME* in the US, by the way.

Yes, oh wisened one, none of us pleebs knew about that. Heaven forbid we look at the bigger picture here. Yes, BellSouth is run by dicks, that's not news. Yeah, is bad what they did and they should be drilled for it, but what does it have to do with Time Warner, seeing as TWC is the dominant provider in many areas of the country?

Come down here and have a conversation for once instead of being a complete asshole, mkay? If its too hard for you, stay out of the discussion.

This isn't something to complain about? Apparently people in New York and North Carolina seem to disagree with you by a wide margin, but they're all mindless peasents, I suppose you know best

YAY it's retarded, convoluted, unrealistic analogy time!

You want to compare this to something? When you show up at many restaurants with more then 8 people, you pay an extra fee because of the extra burdan your party is causing the staff. No one complains about this.

Its called "gratuity" and that isn't close to the same thing. Its a convince for both parties. When I download something from the internet, bandwith is still just electricity going back and forth in a tube wired to my modem. The fees I was paying at normal service were already highway robbery, bandwidth is cheap to make.

When I go to a restaraunt with eight people, I am kind of being a burdening the staff, but I'm also saving my party and the waitress a fuss by paying the gratuity. I wouldn't be getting extra service out of Time Warner if I picked a higher 100 GB tier, I'd actually be getting less service. Paying more for less is dumb.

However a much better one is something everyone grumbles about but no one really cares about. Long Distance Phone plans. Guess what, it doesn't cost any more to call across town then to call India. It doesn't cost any more because for the past 40 years or so everything except the last mile has been a packet switched network all over the world. The same packet switched network a whole lot of the internet runs on. You still pay more, and no one cares.

So wheres the outrage? Where's the protests over charging more for the same amount of work? Calling long distance doesn't cost the phone company anymore then a local call, unlike downloading massive amounts of data constantly, which does.

You know why we don't care about long distance plans?

No one uses them anymore.

This is another thing TWC is after us for. Skype, Teamspeak, etc. These applications circumvent TWC's little internet phone service. I can talk to any friend over the PC for free at no extra cost without it now.

All this is about is people getting free or good service from something that's not TWC's services.

You're holding up Apple as an example that Time Warner needs to follow? Apple who just introduced tiered pricing? Apple who makes you pay more for popular and/or new releases. Apple who makes it extremely easy to find the expensive songs but hides the cheap ones?

It sounds like Time Warner did learn from Apple.

Whoosh. Way to miss my point. Apple doesn't make you buy new releases, by the way. Paying a few bucks for a song is not the same thing as paying $100 more for unlimited access or paying more to keep downloading movies you just paid to get from another service.

The point here is while Time Warner is dicking around with tiering access and alienating the consumer, a better provider is going to come along and pull the carpet out from under them. As much as you may complain about paying for a song, its nothing compared to what what we used to pay for CDs themselves and its probably cheaper just to download a whole album.

In fact, you're missing the whole point. You're just focusing on other shit and not what this is really about.

This is about Netflix, Hulu, Skype, downloading games to your Wii, 360, PS3, PSP, DSi, downloading music to a portable player, this is about video teleconferancing over the internet, this is about internet cafes, public wifi, internet radio and podcasts. Time Warner wants a piece of this action and since they clearly can't beat them, they're not going to join them, just fleece the consumer instead.

And tiering bandwidth would just be the start, once they have you limited, what you have access to will probably become more limited as well. This is why the FCC is towing the line on net neutrality - TWC's plans would end up violating that. They've not been up Comcast or ATT's ass about this because thier capping is not as restrictive (Read: Insane) as TWC's was looking to be.

People already pay fees for some of these internet services and they're legit businesses and websites. What makes TWC so special that they get to dictate how these businesses make money? Its not like internet and TWC are mutally exclusive here - but it would affect these businesses, that can't be denied.

[Feba]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

You do when that one whale who can hardly walk causes the buffet to have to raise it's prices for everyone to accommodate that one person.

Except we both know that, despite how much the company might complain about that person, they're still turning a profit.

YOU don't get gouged by long distance plans, so it's ok to do it

No, I don't get gouged, and if I'm in a position to be, I avoid things that would. Like I said, if I DID need to make a long distance call, I would use Skype.

You are a bigger strain on the system then grandma, pay more for it's upkeep.

Which would be fine IF THEY WERE SELLING A METERED SERVICE. THEY ARE NOT. When you buy gasoline, you buy it by the gallon. When you buy internet access, you buy it by the speed. If gas were charged by the size of the pipe instead of the amount of fuel, and then they started saying "oh, well, you're using more than most people, pay more", you would be pissed-- especially if the oil refineries were making off like bandits.

None of this has anything to do with the outrage. It's all about people thinking they have some right to internet service at some price.

also, the outrage over abortion has nothing to do with people believing that fetuses qualify as human life, they just want to support orphanages.

you can change the reason people are outraged by making up a new one! how fun.

[Mhurron]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Yes, oh wisened one, none of us pleebs knew about that. Heaven forbid we look at the bigger picture here. Yes, BellSouth is run by dicks, that's not news. Yeah, is bad what they did and they should be drilled for it, but what does it have to do with Time Warner, seeing as TWC is the dominant provider in many areas of the country?

ALL telecoms were given money. Not just bell south. You have already paid, several times over, for a fiber connection to your house. That telecom act, by the way, included cable providers. But go ahead, lets just all ignore it and look at the 'big picture' right?

The 'big picture' here is people bitching about a possible rate hike.

Its called "gratuity" and that isn't close to the same thing.

It's a gratuity in the same sense that paying for your food is a gratuity. You pay it or boys in blue have a little word with you. You are also expected to leave a tip over and above that. It's a cost.

Now being an excessive user of Time Warners network might also cost you.

When I download something from the internet, bandwith is still just electricity going back and forth in a tube wired to my modem. The fees I was paying at normal service were already highway robbery, bandwidth is cheap to make.

And all these bits just magically fall from the sky every time you think about browsing the web. There's no infrastructure to maintain. There are no devices to repair or more to buy when a group of people begin to saturate the access points, it all happens by magic. It doesn't cost a thing if I use the more then my whole block put together. It's not like these devices cost more then you'll pay on any house, or many multiples of what you'll make in a year. It's not like I share any bandwidth with everyone else on the bus. No, its all cheap.

And tiering bandwidth would just be the start, once they have you limited, what you have access to will probably become more limited as well. This is why the FCC is towing the line on net neutrality - TWC's plans would end up violating that.

This has nothing to do with net neutrality. What the FCC says (and what the whole net neutrality problem is about) is that you can charge providers OR users, not both. You can't sell preferential access to content providers that pay for better service from you. You can however charge your customers for using your service. Selling tiered bandwidth plans is not against net neutrality. If they went beyond that, they would be in violation, but until they do, they aren't.

People already pay fees for some of these internet services and they're legit businesses and websites. What makes TWC so special that they get to dictate how these businesses make money? Its not like internet and TWC are mutally exclusive here - but it would affect these businesses, that can't be denied.

None of this is your ISP's problem, and none of this is Time Warner dictating how content providers make money. What is Time Warners problem is bandwidth, specifically providing it to all their customers. So if you use more, you might want to expect to pay more.