Time Warner Cable Expands Internet Usage Pricing

Its true that one gamer doesnt take that much bandwith, a friend of mine lives on a boat, uses portable broadband to play wow also streams online radio, checks email / ebay etc has a 20G limit a month and never goes over the limit.

However in this house we have 4 people playing WoW, and streaming via sites like YouTube, ATS, etc as well as downloading legitimate and paid for software, and uploading / transferring data for various projects.

We have a large and fast connection and we expect it to cover the needs of ALL the users in the house.

I don't know what its like for middle class americans, but in england a family of five especially when the children are in their teens, will probably each have their own computer connected to the net and be being used during the evening in england.

reply to post by gYvMessanger


In the UK, as I assume you are, there are many packages that give you a large usage and a fast connection. However, if I was in a shared house with 3 other people all using huge amounts of bandwidth, I'd probably look at a business line rather than a residential line, for several reasons.

Residential lines, be they Virgin fibre or copper-line ADSL are subject to contention. You essentially share the local access trunk with everyone else. You also do not get a full duplex line, your upload will be a fraction of your download.

On business lines, you will get a full-duplex connection, not suffer contention locally and have a guaranteed connection speed with SLA's written into a contract. Residential customers often have to wait day's for a fix to a fault, and your connection speed is merely an approximation.

Also, with say a 10Mbs business ethernet service, you get full SDH protection on dual fibre pairs. Residential isn't protected locally, as it is PDH.

However, you have to pay through the nose for such services. The monthly cost for a business 10Mbs ethernet is 316.25, exc VAT from BT. You could get much cheaper, but that gives you an idea of how expensive bandwidth really is. Residential get it cheaper as it is assumed that that amount of bandwidth won't be needed all the time and you essentially share the local trunk with your neighbours.

Anyhoo, bottom line is that if you want lots of bandwidth, all the time at a decent speed, you'd better cough up. Residential services are not designed with constant, heavy usage in mind. You are, in fact, depriving others in your area of a decent connection by effectively hogging bandwidth.

I am starting a new business. I will download YouTube videos and burn DVDs. I will then offer these DVDs to anyone for small fee...and mail them to them after they pay through paypal.

Lesson: Save everything you can while it is available - movies, videos, books, pictures...Now are the last days to create database of everything.

It is also wise to transfer to other media - tapes, print, anything. Backup of a backup of a backup.

Resistance.

They need to fix there POS DVR's first. You know, the one's that freeze up randomly, won't go to On Demand, restarting on it's own free will. TWC has too many issues to start rolling out BS like this. Everything is getting more stupid in this world by the day. I wish we could take advantage of corporations like they do us. Unfortunately, it would take every TWC customer to stand up and speak and or cancel service. When was the last time this nation stood up for anything it believed in as a whole and made things right??? No one has the charisma, will, or care to do so. This nation is done.

reply to post by greshnik


That sounds like a great idea. Best to do it now before it's too late.........
What software would you recommend for ripping videos of youtube???
What other sites are good for downloads??? (bit torrent etc)

Here in New Zealand we have also have to pay a monthly rate based on data consumption. I am on the 10gb a month plan which costs me $40. If I go over the limit (usually do) I can top up for $2 a gigabyte.

I am not sure if it has always been this way. I am off to check it now and find out whether or not an unlimited plan is possible.

If only Tesla had been allowed to finish his wireless transmitter....... the world would have infinite free power and infinite free wireless broadband.
I hate JP Morgan, all his goons and all the other greedy self serving corporations who know nothing but profit margins.

It is going to take a revolution of epic proportions to change the corrupt systems that have been put in place. We have to at least try........

Wow. I just signed up for the first time simply to post in this thread.

This will throw online gaming out the window.

Since online gaming is constantly using bandwidth, this will likely charge gamers out the a$$.

In FPS gaming there is always of course map downloading, server mod downloads etc when you join, plus the info being sent back and forth while in the server.

In MMORPGs (which are known to be highly addictive) people play all damn day. No doubt Blizzard will see a major drop in Americans playing World of Warcraft and same goes for any other MMO developer/distributer.

Online gaming is a huge cash crop and this is a threat to that. The companies involved will be nothing but angry.

I have Road Runner, and luckily the contract says that they cannot change fees until the contract is nullified.

Also, keep in mind just having an internet connection active (broadband that is) your constantly pinging master servers. Most PCs are also infected with spyware and viruses which also send info to servers. Therefore to avoid going over you would have to disconnect every time you leave your computer. If I remember one of the sales pitches for broadband was "YOU'RE ALWAYS CONNECTED!" So you don't have to log on every time you want to surf the net or play a game of Warcraft ...

Also, take into account sites with heavy Flash or alot of pictures (pron anyone?) These sites can use up a lot of MB's.

I could go on and on about why this is robbery, but ill keep this short.

P.S.
Will I get roll over MBs????????




[edit on 9-4-2009 by lozenge]

[edit on 9-4-2009 by lozenge]

But yet they have the capability to push 9GB a second or something like that. That is instantaneous as there would be no such thing as upload or download anymore. The internet would be so incredible. What's with the FCC trying to make broadband nationwide and offer it for free?

Originally posted by redhead57

Time Warner Cable Expands Internet Usage Pricing

Web users, the meter is running. In a strategy that's likely to rankle consumers but be copied by competitors, Time Warner Cable (TWC) is pressing ahead with a plan to charge Internet customers based on how much Web data they consume. Starting next month, the company will introduce tiered pricing in several markets.

In the case of Time Warner Cable, customers will be charged from $29.95 to $54.90 a month, based on data consumption and desired connection speed. Customers will be charged $1 for each gigabyte (GB) over their plan's cap. Time Warner Cable offers four cap levels of 5, 10, 20, and 40 GB. A download of a high-definition movie typically eats up about 8 GB. A recent report from Sanford C. Bernstein suggests that a family on the 40 GB plan that streams 7.25 hours of online video a week (a fraction of the 60 hours Americans spend watching TV in a week) could end up spending $200 per month on broadband usage fees. And that's just for video viewing, before factoring in such Internet activities as music downloads and photo sharing. "To put it mildly," says Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett, "the decision to limit data consumption can be expected to have profound implications for [consumer] behavior."

(visit the link for the full news article)

www.businessweek.com]L ink

Edited to repair link



[edit on 4/9/2009 by semperfortis]

All I can say is $$$$$$$ ...... Yep, its all about MONEY ! It has nothing to do with the fact that people download video and audio because it does not cost Time Warner anything for people to do that. There is no justification for this action other than GREED !!!!!

Its like this .....

Ok, You have internet at home and internet at work. Time Warner already charges businesses an extravagant fee for internet and their pricing is based on bandwidth increments. At home, you probably have an 8 mb and 10 mb download speed option for a set price. Time Warner like every other internet provider, charges 3-10x more for a business to use that kind of bandwidth, and its the same dam service you get at home. There is no difference in the product that is delivered between the home and the office. Its like electric service, water service, gas service ....etcetera. Its all about the MONEY !!!!

What folks should do is dump Time Warner services period. You want to stop their GREEDY methodolgies, stop paying a bill to them. Let the MONEY do the TALKING !

When they start losing customers over this nonsense, then they will reconsider their actions to get you back. Trust Me on this !!!

reply to post by camain


Bingo! My complaint is that basic Internet here already is about $65 a month for DSL and ony two companies service this area (otherwise you have to use dialup and a seperate service).

Well this is a way around legislating censorship of the internet.

Just make it so only the rich can afford to be online.

where i am i have 1 choice thats cable internet. this will really suck im a heavy downloader. and an avid online gamer. at least im not in 1 of those states but you can bet it will get here.

when they do that ill just drop service from 20mbs down/2mbs up down to the cheapest and stop downloading. they will lose money cause no reason to pay for real fast service just to browse. here we do 3 or 4 movies a week sometimes. that will end and the movie source will also lose money.

ive never posted on this forum in all my years reading here this brought me out lol. i heard awhile back they were starting that test in texas. so looks like soon rr will lose some happy customers. and the web movie providers also will lose. isnt it great NOT.

This just in, apparently Time Warner has gotten tons of complaint for this article and have now made concessions, but according to Broadbandreports.com these concessions are almost as pathetic as their original proposal:
www.dslreports.com...

Originally posted by lozenge
This will throw online gaming out the window.

No it won't.

Originally posted by lozenge
Since online gaming is constantly using bandwidth, this will likely charge gamers out the a$$.

No, it won't.

Originally posted by lozenge
In FPS gaming there is always of course map downloading, server mod downloads etc when you join, plus the info being sent back and forth while in the server.

Which is actually miniscule. Maps will only be a few MB, at most. On ARMA, for example, whole mission files are only a few KB.

Originally posted by lozenge
In MMORPGs (which are known to be highly addictive) people play all damn day. No doubt Blizzard will see a major drop in Americans playing World of Warcraft and same goes for any other MMO developer/distributer.

No, they won't. The amount of info exchanged between you and blizzard, for example, is miniscule. I did mention all this on the front page.

Originally posted by lozenge
Also, keep in mind just having an internet connection active (broadband that is) your constantly pinging master servers. Most PCs are also infected with spyware and viruses which also send info to servers. Therefore to avoid going over you would have to disconnect every time you leave your computer.

A ping packet is tiny. A whole 32 bytes or 256 bits.

Originally posted by lozenge
Also, take into account sites with heavy Flash or alot of pictures (pron anyone?) These sites can use up a lot of MB's.

Pron?

Put it this way, I get 40Gb a month from BT currently, apart from last week when I must have caned the whole allowance in one week, I never go over my usage. I play MMO's, I play FPS online, I look at quite a bit of pron, I watch videos, I even buy alot of my games via online distribution such as Steam, the kids and the missus do their thing to, yet i never go close to exceeding my usage. Even if I do once in a while, BT never seem to care.

[edit on 9/4/09 by stumason]

They can't get away with it? They are a business. They can charge 1,000 bucks a month, if they want. Just.change.providers. Simple as that. Don't have any other providers? Well, 1. move somewhere out of the sticks or 2. get satellite.

They won't force other companies to follow suit. Many other companies will be quite content getting the business TW once had.

The fact that there are ISPs that already offer deals like 39 bucks a month for life sort of kills any theory that they will follow Warner's lead. I wouldn't sweat it too much. They are just going to lose customers.

reply to post by redhead57


Dump them without delay. There are plenty of other independent providers. Boycott all their products. I did. Got rid of the triple play (which constantly left me with a dead telephone and no service, but charged none the less until I demanded credit for each hour of shut-down).

Today- I switch to one of the many services out there. The best weapon we have is our $$$. Use it!

With the All Seeing Eye built right into their logo so blatantly, exit Time Warner ASAP.

[edit on 9-4-2009 by synthesizer]

[edit on 9-4-2009 by synthesizer]

reply to post by GBBumblebee


It's basically the same here in New Zealand.. But worse than Aus, we get slower speeds and they're only just unravelling the ADSL2 cables in different cities and the plans for that cost consumers a lot of $$$$$.
We've been waiting years for better broadband but because of Telecom the whole country is one of the worst in Broadband.

On the bright side, there is nothing worth downloading these days.
There are also no good games to play online at the moment.
Also, if this cap hits america then they'll be on similar deals to us, which sortof equals out the competition online between countries so there won't be this huge speed/latency difference on games anymore

reply to post by Leto


lol they've conceded to 100GB per month....lovely, still 150GB less than one of their main competitors : comcast.

it's amazing that instead of concentrating on improving their service and updating their technology used to deliver said service, their more concerned over gouging their customers. it's pretty bad when america ranks 17th in broadband ranking for the world....www.speedmatters.org...
frankly if i have to, i'll take a hit in speed to switch to another provider who isn't so greedy.

I have a 16Mb connection here, pretty fast on the download. I usually get 1.3Mb/sec download on torrent files. My bill is 98.00 per month with 100Gb download/upload limit per month.
If i download more than 100Gb per month, they charge me 130$ per month (maximum)
So basically, i have unlimited download.
But will it last? i wonder...



[edit on 10-4-2009 by teklordz]

reply to post by redhead57


If you're using Time Warner Cable, Stop and use another.

That should send the message loud and clear.

reply to post by stumason


sorry to get off topic. but your reply came off as a bit rude.
It makes me not want to partake in a discussion here, and I love this site.

while although i'm exaggerating my claims a little, I am very aware of how the internet works. So please don't speak to me like i'm new to the it. btw, big fan of ARMA and OFP.

anyways I was simply trying to show that metering peoples bandwidth regardless of how small a packet is simply robbery. bytes at up...

much respect, but please show for me even though I exaggerated a bit. This is the reason it took me so long to sign up, ATS scares me...

I also want to state that in Counter Strike (and alot of other Source Engine games) servers are bloated to hell with sounds and silly mods, and the maps are decently large. If you play on a custom map server you will be downloading pretty much every map change and that DOES add up very quickly.

I frankly do not have the patience to ration out my usage. I do a lot of things online and I can't keep track of it all.



[edit on 10-4-2009 by lozenge]