Time Warner Cable
polycounter lvl 15
Anyone else getting fucked over by this in TX, NY, NC?
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090331_726397.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090331_726397.htm
Replies
Hope they dont start this here,
I may need to move to Fios or AT&T fiber soon,
For us who use netflix this isnt fair,
I know here in Mckinney we have at&t fiber my neighbor has it,
Just wish we could get fios soon since ive heard better things about it,
Read on dsl reports at&t may start caps soon anyways,
They're such total bungholes, they will do this only in regions where they have no real competition, because otherwise it would never work.
They're trying to set customers against each other by pretending that slow connections are the fault of "a few bandwith hogs" who use up all the good internet and only bad internet is left for responsible users. When in reality people get slow connections because their cable network is running at max capacity and they can't/don't want to spend the money to upgrade it.
sandpaper up their asses
This is why I don't want shit tied to the internet. These are some of the greediest fucks running the show.
They've been talking about this for ages, how cable will get slower when more users are using it. I haven't noticed- my internet is as fast as ever. Cable companies are just using it as an excuse to monetize the reliance on broadband for all sorts of things (MMO's, digital distribution, and especially legal movie downloads now).
The only thing to do is switch. There is a LOT of money here and if TWC and others don't change their ways, other companies will move in pretty quickly with new tech and steal their customers. There are alternatives and the more people switch, the quicker we will have even more and better alternatives.
Plano.
I can already get AT&T but wanted to wait for FIOS so I can just worry about one bill for cell phone, cable and internet.
Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt says in an interview. "We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension." Time Warner Cable has 8.4 million broadband customers.
.... soooooooooo, you say that you screwed up as a cover up, and now you're gonna make the consumer pay for your "mistake"....
bad business, bad company, make the switch and don't use 'em and watch this douche get his chestnuts roasted and toasted by unhappy consumers and stockholders.
But if you're stuck with Time Warner, I believe you can still get unlimited service through EarthLink.
EarthLink uses Time Warner's cable, but I don't think they have metered service. They might be somewhat slower than TimeWarner though.
I've been following this for a while and I thought I saw somewhere they mentioned this new data plan only applies to new customers. Maybe they just said fuck that and we're all getting charged. oh well.
how am I, as a start-up, supposed to get my goddamn feet of the ground if nobody can afford the bandwidth to download a game demo or two?
CEO, hey what if we charged our customers more money, but didn't actually do anything different?
Other CEOs, holy shit... *fap**fap**fap**fap**fap*
i remember that one video of those dudes that were talking about this a while ago. everyone laughed at it then. its coming true.
all it takes is ONE company who isnt full of itself and stands by its customers to stop this from happening.
i bet congress will pass laws to fux us over on this issue.
One DVD-quality stream from Netflix can take up 5 GB. I can probably knock out two of those in a week. That would exceed my monthly limit on the highest tier. Even with only one Instant movie per weeks, that leaves me with 20 GB for Hulu, Youtube, Online Games (PC and Xbox), etc.
Time Warner's tier pricing is already flawed. If I pay for 40 GB ,but only use half, am I still charged for the 20 GB I didn't use? Do they roll over, like phone plans? It's all planned to screw the user until enough people demand something else. They should work to raise the highest tier, and lower the cost of each plan. Otherwise, lots of entertainment providers will continue to be pissed at this slowing their growth on the internet.
You want to know another reason?
So TV is still feasible for them. They can make more money on TV revenue than net. Especially since these companies also own or have stock in TV studios.
They are afraid of the net overtaking the standard TV payment and advertisement system. In a way, they are specifically standing in the way of progress to promote a less viable system.
What we need is are broadband providers just dedicated to net access without any conflicts of interests in other competing realms with entertainment of information.
ElysiumGX: This was on the news here in the Triad Area a couple days ago after I posted this thread. Here's how it is going down for the North Carolina area...
- They will not implement the tier plan system until the Fall of 2009
- Right now they are monitoring usage of customers in all main service areas (Triad, Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte) to establish tier ranking systems.
- You WILL NOT have the ability to "roll-over" unused bandwidth... "use it or lose it" - their exact words
- Existing customers will not have to use the tier system until the end of this year while new customers are being forced to choose a tier
They keep trying to justify this by making up false claims, saying things like, "this will 'enable' customers to choose a plan that is right for them" and "customers will save money by choosing a tier that suites their needs".I had no idea that was being "enabled" with the overwhelming power of choice when I was being "forced" to switch to a tier system! It is so empowering to know that I can choose how to get fucked over! I feel so enlightened now that I am "enabled"! YES!
They are no better than greedy banks and credit card companies. Corporate America at its finest.
IIRC this is exactly how the old days of AOL charging by the hour were brought to an end; other companies popped up that were willing to charge a flat monthly rate while providing better service for less money. I'm pretty sure we'll have some companies that look to compete by offering their customers value instead of trying to squeeze every single last dime out of them.
How though? In many areas Cable is all you have. I wanted DSL here, but couldnt get it. Had to go with Broadstripe Cable (and they don't nearly have enough powerful gateways fro traffic at peak hours).
The only other option was Clearwire, not only huge latencies, but everytime a plane goes over, the single is loss.
I need to point out, this effects many of us as well. Steam, and to a lesser extent, MMOGs. Even that new broadband gaming system network idea. All of these are going to be crippled if all these Companies start caps.
They let me off with a warning, but I had to closely monitor my internet usage for many months before they finally started raising the cap. 20GB, 30GB, 50GB... I'm not even sure if there is one anymore, but I download as much as I want and they haven't complained lately. Upload speed is still utter shit, though. Hasn't gotten faster in ten years.
Sucks to hear that other companies are going the reverse direction. Not surprising in the least, but it still sucks. It's especially bad since HD video just became common (see: Youtube) and their caps are shitty for even a decade ago. No one in their right mind would think that's an appropriate limit for this millennium (especially for those terrible prices).
Stop hogn net at home and do it at your work machine =P
Oxy you conspiracy theory isn't honestly that far fetched. I don't understand why some people just fight the future tooth and nail and refuse to change their business model and adapt.
Ditto. I have never paid for Cable TV. The channels I need are free, and the shows I want are online for free. What recession? Can anyone find an article on online gaming, and the bandwidth it can use per month? I see that as being my main concern. Paying a fee for online gaming, and being limited in using it for what it's worth.
@Filebert: Thanks for the info. I, like many, have been paying a set price for broadband for a decade. No discounts in pricing. No improvements in speed. Some family members have been forced to use wireless modems for multiple machines, so that TW could charge them extra. They are great at caring little for customer satisfaction. I can see this new plan being cost effective for some...but more costly for those who use it for many everyday tasks. More big mistakes from the big companies in charge of our quality of life.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/10/time-warner-cable-lays-out-broadband-capping-plans-says-150-fo/
Time Warner Shelves Consumption-Based Pricing Plan
Don't mock people so easily. I'm not aware of my daily average bandwidth usage for games and movies...and I don't want to be charged more money for something I'm not aware of. I think that was the biggest concern for consumers in this discussion.
I think the vast majority of people that use the internet cannot account for the amount of bandwidth they use, so you are right, that is the biggest driving factor behind this delay.
Granted this is only a delay, but there is a protest being held locally at the Greensboro office in an attempt to make this a permanent "no go".
The internet was exactly where it should have been. You used it as much as you needed and you paid a flat rate. That's it. The times of paying for how many hours you used were (thankfully) long gone. Going to a tiered plan, or a byte limit is going backwards.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/22/time-warner-and-embarq-cant-compete-with-city-owned-isp-trying/
now they are getting really dirty...