AfterDawn: Tech news

Time Warner Cable metered internet trial starts this week

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 03 Jun 2008 8:18 User comments (42)

Time Warner Cable metered internet trial starts this week Starting this Thursday new subscribers to Time Warner Cable broadband internet service in Beaumont, Texas will be given a monthly limit on downloads. For ever Gigabyte a customer exceeds their plan's limit by they'll be charged an additional $1. In the past company representatives have indicated that the reason for the change is that just 5% of users use 50% of the available bandwidth.
"We think it's the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure," said Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable's executive vice president of advanced technology.

He indicated the service will be divided into different tiers, each with its own download limits. The lowest tier will cost $29.95 a month for a maximum download speed of 768 kilobits per second and up to 5 Gigabytes total transferred. At the top end the speed will be 15 Megabits per second, with a limit of 40 Gigabytes worth of downloads.



No limits will be imposed on existing customers, and even those who sign up for the new plans will reportedly not actually charge the extra fee for the first two months. Presumably this is intended to give customers time to get used to keeping track of their downloads, which they'll be able to do from the company's web page.

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42 user comments

13.6.2008 20:29

Quote:
"We think it's the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure," said Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable's executive vice president of advanced technology.
Let me clarify what is really saying.


Quote:This is the best way to rob consumers of there hard earned dollars because we are losing million of dollar every day to DirectTv.


I can't wait to i see the light of day when this company fold they have horrible customer service they give you less HD channels but over charge like hell for them.Always looking to over charge customers but give them less in return.Plus the Hardware they have never can stay running without a update once a week.

23.6.2008 20:42

These TWC sluts are more than happy to draw extra revenue from the ones that use the most bandwidth. They aren't even going to consider rebates and give to those who use the least. They will keep sucking the money from everyone. We need more options and we need them now.

33.6.2008 21:15
david89
Inactive

if they go through with this i believe they will go Bankrupt this is not fair because everyone allready pays for speed they get and 40 gigs or 100 cap not enough why couldn't do like comcast give 250 gig limit i would like slower speed vs 40 gig limit anyday of the week i hope enough people drop there service if they do it so they will stop this nonsence.

43.6.2008 21:46

Everybody Should Just cancel there service till they get rid of the the bandwidth/download limit

This Is stupid

OR THEY NEED AN UNLIMITED PLAN AND ITS HIGHWAY ROBBERY

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Jun 2008 @ 9:52

53.6.2008 21:50

wtf

glad this isn't the company that has MONOPOLY on broadband in my particular area.
if it was, i'd be forced off of the internet since i'd immediately boycott such nonsense policies.

either i'd be offline, or reduced to only lo-fi forums and mobile-web sites.
dial-up is all but useless on today's bandwidth-intensive web.

63.6.2008 21:52

iv Calculated these my self, 1 hour of battlefield 2 is 1.5 gig of bandwidth. an idling computer has an average of 1 gig of use in an 12 hour time span. 2 hours of streaming audio is 2-3 gigs at least.

this is stupid, there will be no awareness by the average consumer about how much bandwidth application will take up.

before Comcast closed out in are area, i took there modem disabled the caps and was getting near 1 Gbits a second for a good 1 week before the canceled are contract. two weeks later Comcast just disappeared. 3 weeks later Time Warner Also vanished. mere coincidence i think not.

they both preform bad business practices, only difference between the two is one will lie through tooth and nail.

73.6.2008 21:55

Originally posted by DXR88:
iv Calculated these my self, 1 hour of battlefield 2 is 1.5 gig of bandwidth. an idling computer has an average of 1 gig of use in an 12 hour time span. 2 hours of streaming audio is 2-3 gigs at least.

this is stupid, there will be no awareness by the average consumer about how much bandwidth application will take up.

before Comcast closed out in are area, i took there modem disabled the caps and was getting near 1 Gbits a second for a good 1 week before the canceled are contract. two weeks later Comcast just disappeared. 3 weeks later Time Warner Also vanished. mere coincidence i think not.

they both preform bad business practices, only difference between the two is one will lie through tooth and nail.
We Need an internet Company for the people by the people

There Gonna make money hand overfist I can see alot of people modding there modems

83.6.2008 22:13

Oh, there is my friend called its Dark-Net get lucky and you'll find yourself on the internet for free. Run by nerds and geeks by lines that were laid out age's ago for military use they were abandoned. not cut just disconnected. these lines are quite fast for there age.


But you'll have too find them yourself.

A-lot of good wares groups use Dark-Net to communicate.

93.6.2008 23:45

that wouldn't be good for me. i easily download 100 gigs a month.

104.6.2008 00:11

starting at 30? WFT?!?!?! start at 14$ and have it 1$ for every 5GB up to a total of 38 more then it goes unlimited and it will be a deal.


this is just highway robbery its not even priced to counter cheap DSL....morons....

DXR88
how dose idling use bandwidth? I know streaming and what not will add to it like crazy, the idea of it is not bad but what they are offering is there normal plan at a higher rate, thats just foolish they need a service thats cheap and will get people who midly use the net.

I don;t mind paying 50$ a month for unfiltered board band, but they need services for the dailup people that match the dailup price.

114.6.2008 00:23

Originally posted by ZippyDSM:
starting at 30? WFT?!?!?! start at 14$ and have it 1$ for every 5GB up to a total of 38 more then it goes unlimited and it will be a deal.


this is just highway robbery its not even priced to counter cheap DSL....morons....

DXR88
how dose idling use bandwidth? I know streaming and what not will add to it like crazy, the idea of it is not bad but what they are offering is there normal plan at a higher rate, thats just foolish they need a service thats cheap and will get people who midly use the net.

I don;t mind paying 50$ a month for unfiltered board band, but they need services for the dailup people that match the dailup price.
because your constantly pinging the network. thats how Stay alive networks stay online.

Zippy ever heard of Room 641A.if you haven't search it up. its interesting what company's can get away with.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 04 Jun 2008 @ 12:27

124.6.2008 03:41

DXR88
that + any traffic from any app and any incoming connection from wroms and virus/hackers.

the plan they are offering would not be so bad if it started at 10 a month and caped at 40$ switching to a normal connection unlimited connection for that month.

134.6.2008 09:43

So let's see...AT&T DSL service $20/month at 1.5 Mb/s, unlimited Gigs (for now), vs $30 for 768 Kb/s and limited? BS! Not to mention FiOS is expanding everyday. I don't hear anything about Comcast expanding/upgrading to fiber optics where the bandwidth flows like Manna from Heaven! Their old Coax cables are feeling the strain of modern digital distribution. I'll stick with AT&T until I can get my Verizon FiOS fix!

144.6.2008 10:13

everyone here is right, it is total crap.
but their percentages there tell you nothing will get done and they will get away with whatever they want.
the people who know it's robery are the 5% using the 50% of space.
if those people cancel their service look what happens, they get 50% of their bandwidth back and retain 95% of their customer base.
they win, either way.
what needs to be done is the other 95% which are just moms and grandparents and school teachers, need to be educated and shown that they are not paying for a valuable service.
this is why corporations want to keep us dumb, we're easier to control and push around.
i'm just saying is all. the few do nothing. rally the masses and you'll see change. viva la revolution!

154.6.2008 10:21

Originally posted by ChiknLitl:
So let's see...AT&T DSL service $20/month at 1.5 Mb/s, unlimited Gigs (for now), vs $30 for 768 Kb/s and limited? BS! Not to mention FiOS is expanding everyday. I don't hear anything about Comcast expanding/upgrading to fiber optics where the bandwidth flows like Manna from Heaven! Their old Coax cables are feeling the strain of modern digital distribution. I'll stick with AT&T until I can get my Verizon FiOS fix!
they need to split the diffrance focus a cheap service(8-14$) to thos who will barely use it and then max out full service at 40-50 a month.

frankly they don't need to touch the data amount IMO just limiting the speeds to plans would be more sound, 80D/40Up KPBS for 14 a month is a good starting point, then offer the 700+ KBPS plans at 40+ a month, creating magical meter rates that over charge the consuemr by 100X is not good for anyone.

164.6.2008 10:51

Originally posted by baileym43:
everyone here is right, it is total crap.
but their percentages there tell you nothing will get done and they will get away with whatever they want.
the people who know it's robery are the 5% using the 50% of space.
if those people cancel their service look what happens, they get 50% of their bandwidth back and retain 95% of their customer base.
they win, either way.
what needs to be done is the other 95% which are just moms and grandparents and school teachers, need to be educated and shown that they are not paying for a valuable service.
this is why corporations want to keep us dumb, we're easier to control and push around.
i'm just saying is all. the few do nothing. rally the masses and you'll see change. viva la revolution!
This news is crap. Everyone is right about TWC having the WORST customer service EVER! I have a 1.5 mbps down right now, and couldn't imagine the bottle of worms they are opening up!

These companies constantly advertise downloads, streaming audio/video, etc. to convince people to switch to their service. If anyone does any of the above, plus keeps their PC on 24/7, their bill is going to go through the roof! Not to mention the homes that have multiple PC's and/or game consoles that access the net!

Heck, even Netflix's streaming video plans would go in the toilet if people have to constantly bring up a website to track their "usage". I'll even bet that said website is filled with cash-gaining ads and tracking cookies to further undermine the consumer!

174.6.2008 11:48

Originally posted by baileym43:
everyone here is right, it is total crap.
but their percentages there tell you nothing will get done and they will get away with whatever they want.
the people who know it's robery are the 5% using the 50% of space.
if those people cancel their service look what happens, they get 50% of their bandwidth back and retain 95% of their customer base.
they win, either way.
what needs to be done is the other 95% which are just moms and grandparents and school teachers, need to be educated and shown that they are not paying for a valuable service.
this is why corporations want to keep us dumb, we're easier to control and push around.
i'm just saying is all. the few do nothing. rally the masses and you'll see change. viva la revolution!
Your quite right about the only people that complain are the ones that use the bandwidth!

Im with a company called Plus.net in the UK and although they do have a download limit they only count that limit during peak hours of 4-12pm which i personally think is a better idea (plus if you do go over they just cap your net rather than charge you), so when the majority of people are using the net they set a limit of how much you can download a month but the rest of the time (outside of 4-12pm) you can download as much as you friggin like plus they have 1month contracts which are always good!

Obviously i would like all internet services to have no limit but i would rather have a balance between a decent connection and the amount i can download!

184.6.2008 14:31

And you just made me think of one thing that DOES irritate me: I mentioned that I have a 1.5 mbps down, but how often do I get 1.5? (1500K) Or 800K or even 600K sometimes. Seriously, the SpeedTest became a bookmark in my browser, because I always have to second guess whether my connection is up to par or not. Let's not forget the times that my connection goes out altogether, for no good reason at all! I'm already being swindled for $55 a month, plus whatever taxes, franchise fees and other "a la carte" b.s. TWC can dump on the bill.

AOL in it's prime was never much more than $25 a month, so what justifies DOUBLE in this case? It's a ridculous monopoly that these telcos have. Give me a choice already! Maybe if WiMax ever gets off the ground, we'll have another option. Heck, even 3G cell phone speeds aren't too shabby, and may keep increasing. Whatever it takes!

And to the original poster: you're right! DirecTv destroys anything TWC has! When I moved at the beginning of the year, I dropped TWC within 2 weeks, one of which I had to deal with because DirecTv couldn't install for a week! I've never had so many headaches, with HD channels that wouldn't come in (ESPN and HBO no less) black and white picture, SD 480i channels shifting across the screen on my HDTV, blank program guide, and PPV's that couldn't be ordered!

194.6.2008 15:34

Kiss high def streaming video (VOD) goodbye !!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

204.6.2008 17:32

in essence, we will sell you a service on the understanding that you don't use it. if you do use it we will charge you more.

214.6.2008 23:31

A trial!
Good idea.
When it's done, we can line Time Warner up against the wall and execute them.

225.6.2008 10:05
susieqbbb
Inactive

I find this funny limit users to only a few gig's of downloads did these jack #$#$#$ ever consider windows vista downloads 400 meg's worth of updates every single month and worse if it is a system update like internet explorer look at nearly 1 gig to 2 gigs worth of downloads vista service pack 1 is 500 megs alone.

235.6.2008 10:30

Originally posted by iluvendo:
Kiss high def streaming video (VOD) goodbye !!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Exactly and people think disc based media is on the way out....not gonna happen anytime soon if limitations like these are set in place.

245.6.2008 17:20

just another reason i stick with dsl, i believe this is planned for all cable isp's eventually.

my question is how do you know how many gb's you have used on gaming consoles, its not hard to download a tool for a pc but for online gaming the average user wouldnt have a clue. im pretty sure you can find your usage throu the modem but if you have to reset it and forget to write down the gb count you would be screwed.

whats with the download count anyway, i thought it was upload the cable companys cry about, lord knows when i had cable they were always crying about me flooding the network and affecting other users online experience with my excesive uploading, i could never get them to tell me how much was too much so i switched back to dsl.

255.6.2008 18:47

Starting to sound more and more like a cellphone bill every day.

265.6.2008 19:14

I read somewhere that verizon with their fOIS service on the east cost says it literally makes no difference how much one downloads ..and is based on total capacity of the backbone.

Cable companies have overloaded their nodes ... say you get 10-15meg service ..but at "peak" times sometimes its less than 7.

Just like the music industry ..cable companies have refused to get with the times ... whomever rolls fiber or wireless to homes first is gonna win the big prize. Verizon is already proving it.

275.6.2008 22:04

Just another reason I dropped Roadrunner a few weeks ago and upgraded to FIOS. Upload bandwidth is 12x faster, D/L speeds up to 2.2 mB/s!

285.6.2008 22:25

This is just like the gas prices so this is high techs OPEC ready to take us to the cleaners....

296.6.2008 00:08

Last night, the channel 4 news in my area, Texas, announced that comcast is also doing the exact same test in small town in texas starting today.. All I can say is hopefully customer will leave these companies in droves and "maybe" these companies will realize how foolish their greed is.. OR maybe we should have fought harder for net neutrality.......

306.6.2008 00:40

SProdigy
We got 2mbit DSL here, thats roughly 200KBPS, not 20000KBPS,10Mbit service is 900-1000Kbps.

With that said 2Mbit can be as low as 190 and as high as 320.

1.5MB is slower than 786, 786 comes out to nearly 6Mbit a sec, but I suck at math so why doesn't someone with a brain tell us the KBPS of a 1.5,2.0,6 and 10mbit connection?

316.6.2008 12:29

Originally posted by ZippyDSM:
SProdigy
We got 2mbit DSL here, thats roughly 200KBPS, not 20000KBPS,10Mbit service is 900-1000Kbps.

With that said 2Mbit can be as low as 190 and as high as 320.

1.5MB is slower than 786, 786 comes out to nearly 6Mbit a sec, but I suck at math so why doesn't someone with a brain tell us the KBPS of a 1.5,2.0,6 and 10mbit connection?
Let's try to keep this straight with the nomencalture guys. "M" = Mega, "m" = milli, "B" = byte, "b" = bit. There are 8 bits in a byte. 1000Kb = 1 Mb. Therefore if you have a 1.5 Mb/s connection that equals 1500Kb/s. If you have a 786 Kb/s connection that's kilobits, which is smaller than Mb, or Megabits. I am assuming that you are talking about Kb/s here Zippy or my comments don't matter. However, in general the case of the letters "M" and "B" do matter when we're talking about size, specifically the letter "B". Usually when looking at network speeds I think they are generally given in Kb/s. Such as: 200 Kb/s, 786 Kb/s, 1578 Kb/s, etc. I haven't seen any displays of Mb/s and I don't think any networks/software report speeds in KB/s or MB/s (Kilobytes or Megabytes).
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 Jun 2008 @ 12:34

326.6.2008 14:29

ChiknLitl
the way the sat DSL guy explained it a 1.5Mbit service will come out to about 150.0KBPS + up to 30%, when I was running un filtered I got about 220KBPS.

Most services do not donate the raw KB speeds but rather the general Mbit speed if that makes any sense.

Now would your 1-2"MB" DSL lines be mbit or Mbit, the designation I get lost on, dailup 45.0Kbps is 10 times slower than 45.0 KBPS on DSL since a 65kbps modem can only connect at up to 7.0KBPS on V92 tech on a crisp clean line with top of the line hardware, broadband speeds are gennrealy KBPS or is there something else I am missing?

336.6.2008 15:36

Hi Zippy. I could be out of my league here but I think that most speeds are relayed in "Kb"/s and "Mb"/s. Even the Comcast commercials adverstise "speeds at up to 16Mb/s". I haven't heard of any conversions or adverts with posted speeds in KB or MB/s (other than hardware transfers like hard drive or optical drive read/write speeds)but that doesn't mean they don't exist and it should be easy enough to calculate, being that 8 bits = 1 Byte. Now I'm not saying that my 1.5 Mb/s (Megabit) DSL connection ever gets up to that speed other than with a speed test. Usually I get up to 200-300 Kb/s DL speeds. Some routers let you type the network ID address of your router into your explorer address bar and access network info such as download and upload speeds. My speeds have always been reported as Kb/s, not in KB/s.

Capital "M" is Mega (10 to the 6th power, i.e., 1 Mb = 1,000,000 bits or 1000 Kb), lower case "m" is milli (10 to the negative 3rd power or 1/1000). There are no mb or mB designations.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega-][/url]

346.6.2008 15:50

Perhaps this would help you zippy.

http://www.easycalculation.com/bandwidth-calculator.php

356.6.2008 18:26

Originally posted by DXR88:
Perhaps this would help you zippy.

http://www.easycalculation.com/bandwidth-calculator.php


Nice link!

366.6.2008 22:19

Originally posted by DXR88:
Perhaps this would help you zippy.

http://www.easycalculation.com/bandwidth-calculator.php


interesting my 2Mbit DSL maxes out at 200KBPS.

Oh well since mew mind is blown I guess I'll write the confusion off as normality :P

377.6.2008 16:31

My bill at the end of the month would be $10,000 if I were metered.

387.6.2008 20:41

Originally posted by Sontiago:
Last night, the channel 4 news in my area, Texas, announced that comcast is also doing the exact same test in small town in texas starting today.. All I can say is hopefully customer will leave these companies in droves and "maybe" these companies will realize how foolish their greed is.. OR maybe we should have fought harder for net neutrality.......
I spoke to Comcast and know someone in a management position and they will not be going that route all they are doing is a test study and they know it wouldn't be a good thing, it would kill the interent and business for one and all.

397.6.2008 21:21

Originally posted by duke8888:
Originally posted by Sontiago:
Last night, the channel 4 news in my area, Texas, announced that comcast is also doing the exact same test in small town in texas starting today.. All I can say is hopefully customer will leave these companies in droves and "maybe" these companies will realize how foolish their greed is.. OR maybe we should have fought harder for net neutrality.......
I spoke to Comcast and know someone in a management position and they will not be going that route all they are doing is a test study and they know it wouldn't be a good thing, it would kill the interent and business for one and all.
Meh they'll find most people do not need more than 3Mb line and charge 3X for anything above it.

409.6.2008 08:57

This is a test for new customers. Priced differently, it might be a good business move for them. My guess is they will not get many new customers. I think this is a great! I am thankful that they were not offering the cheap service for a fair price like $15. In my neck of the woods, cheap DSL goes for $22 which has much better band width than that. I might even go back to dial up if I was faced with that. This is what all the old cable companies want to do because they are cramped for bandwidth. I am sure this is in an area where they have no competition. If they tried to do that to me I would move to DSL in a heart beat. I don't think they will because there is competition in my area, THANK GOD!

4119.6.2008 18:05

how do "they" monitor your usage anyway? they can pretty much just tell you your over and charge you for it and you have to take their word for it? I'm waiting for verizon or freakin u-verse. this is off the subject but in my nieghborhood I see at&t and still trying to loop folks into satellite tv contracts even though u-verse is supposed to be here soon, what's up with that? anyway I've looked at the prices for the fios and u-verse and the prices are no better than any other combo (tv/HSinternet/phone) package that's out right now. still a big rip off. you guys want your customers to stick around? make it less expensive, it's some silly wires for petes sake.

water4gasdotcom

4219.6.2008 21:33

I like how people say there going to Verizon. I know some nasty secrets about Verizon's way of handling things.

if you want speed over some company Logging You go, Verizon. Im not gunna Go verizon. in the next 2 years im gunna be on afterdawn hearing people bickering about how Verizon Shouldent have to CAP peoples Internet or how they should not be aloud to monitor what your using your bandwidth for.

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