ISPs Capping internet usage [road runner]

[Mageling]

Originally Posted by Picasso

I will blow up parliament if they allow this.

I demand this be recorded in high-def.

I'll donate to this cause.

[Evelys]

And Time Warner has confirmed that they will be removing caps in all of their markets. No more capping for any market.

Woohoo!

[Araxen]

Customers win for now...till they think we've forgotten and try it again. I think if they would have taken Comcasts stance and had nice big caps they would have been fine. 250GB is alot to me. Don't get me wrong I don't want caps, but it's a good comprise. The only people that can stop the caps is a law or the FCC stepping in. Maybe a law was what they were ultimately afraid of in hindsight.

[CnCGOD]

250GB can go poof in a night with 60-100Meg internet though.

[PerritoBites]

Originally Posted by Evelys

And Time Warner has confirmed that they will be removing caps in all of their markets. No more capping for any market.

Woohoo!

Link to this please?

[Arative]

Originally Posted by PerritoBites

Link to this please?

Stop the Cap! · Fight Back Against Usage Caps for Cable, DSL, and Fiber Optic Broadband

[Ryhian]

Oops, Arative beat me to it.

[PerritoBites]

Thanks! and thanks for the good news

[Nerion]

"...today announced it would alter plans to test Consumption Based Billing, shelving the trials while the CUSTOMER EDUCATION PROCESS CONTINUES."

That statement struck me as extremely fucked up.

[Snugglebear]

They'll be back at it some day soon. Remember that the tree of 500 gigabyte porn downloads must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and Time Warner executives.

[Sithro]

What we need to do from now on is keep tabs on this shit. This generation is technically competant (to an extent), so we should try to explain to people why this is bad just in case TW tries this shit again.

[AladainAF]

VICTORY!!!!!

(I know its been posted, just posting again cuz its such good news)

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.

[Sharmai]

I'm betting their largest reason for shelving this is a legal one. For all intents and purposes cable companies are monopolies in their areas. Their competition is 56k dial up and in some areas dsl (which is still not on par with cable). If they did this then consumers would be left with limited or no alternatives for high speed internet.

Nevermind the legal complications when internet based companies like huluu and youtube start losing money from these ventures.

The lawsuits would get ugly.

[Kaio]

So they want to educate us on why we should pay more for the same thing so they can make more money?

Their network costs have decreased, customers have increased, and bandwidth usage has increased. Maintaining the network is getting cheaper year by year despite that so they want to triple the price to some members?

Upgrading to docsis 3.0 which will will give each customer fios like speeds for only a $50-100 dollar amount per customer is goddamn cheap. Especially when you think about verizon spending $800++ per customer to get new fiber lines to the premises.

I wonder how they plan on "educating" their customers. Hey guys we want to shove higher prices down your throats but give you all kinds of bullshit reasons for it so we can increase our profits. You have no choice because we own teh pipes lol.

I'm glad it's over for now...

[Sithro]

DailyTech - Time Warner, Embarq Fight to Outlaw 100 Mbps Community Broadband in Wilson, NC

The cable companies aren't happy that they've been one-upped in both price and quality of service


Time Warner Inc., after finally dropping its plans for metered internet services for the time being, appears to be back to its old ways. This story begins in Wilson, North Carolina. Wilson is a small city of about 47,000 residents located in the middle of North Carolina, roughly 45 minutes east of Raleigh, the state's capital.

The city's residents, like many, long complained over high internet, cable, and telephone prices. So the city launched an ambitious $28M USD program to deliver these services basically at cost, at much lower rates than local service providers Time Warner Inc. and Embarq.

For example, the city offers an expanded basic cable (81 channels), 10 Mbps (download and upload), and a digital phone plan with unlimited long distance to the U.S. and Canada, all for $99.95. A comparable plan from Time Warner Inc., with six fewer channels (no Cartoon Network, Disney, The Science Channel, ESPNU, ESPN News, or ESPN Classic) and lower upload speeds costs $137.95, for an introductory rate, which lasts a few months and then will likely be ratcheted up.

The city service, named Greenlight Inc., also offers a premium package with 20 Mbps (download and upload), faster than any service provider in the area (Time Warner Inc. and Embarq's "Turbo" plans top out at 15 Mbps download). And Greenlight also offers a stunning 100 Mbps (download and upload) local service as well, though it is not listed on their website in the basic packages.

Rather than admit defeat to the pesky local service and go quietly, Time Warner Inc. and Embarq decided to take the fight to the state government, lobbying for several years to get the state government to pass laws to try to destroy the local effort. And sure enough, thanks to a lot of hard work (and money), the cable companies are close to getting their wish -- North Carolina's State Senate have proposed bills to not only effectively crippling or banning the local service, but also to prevent such services from getting funds under the broadband portion of the national Stimulus law.

The city, has blasted the move, launching a new blog and urging the state government to reject the initiative. Writes Brian Bowman, the city's Public Affairs Manager, "I have a 10Mbps up/down connection at my house. Can’t get half that from the cable company. I buy it directly from the City of Wilson. After less than a year of residential service, almost 3,000 Wilson citizens are subscribing to Wilson’s fiber optic network. Local businesses can get up to one Gbps."

He continues, "If the cable/phone companies really want a level playing field, they’d open their books just like we do in the spirit of open meetings and open records law. They don’t want a level playing field. They want to be the only team on the field."

"Bottom line, these companies are using your state lawmakers to protect monopolies. It was wrong in 2007 when a similar bill died in the house and it’s wrong today."

The real irony, of the situation is that a recent report, by local newspaper IndyWeek indicates that the city first approached Time Warner Inc. and Embarq with a request for faster internet for residents and local businesses. The cable companies refused, unwilling to cut into their profit margins. So the city took it upon itself, and in the end found out it could sell the service to citizens at a fraction of the cost.

Local provider Embarq still defends its decision, saying it has the right to make money (which it argues Greenlight Inc. does not). The company's spokesperson states, "We would love to deploy DSL everywhere. We try to make smart financial decisions not only for shareholders but customers. In the very rural areas, sometimes it would take two, three or more years to even pay for the investment."

The issue is very non-partisan, in that the anti-competition bills are supported by a mix of Republicans and Democrats (a previous similar bill had been proposed by Rep. Drew Saunders (D-Mecklenburg) and Vice Chairman Rep. Harold Brubaker (R-Randolph)). Opposition to the measure is equally mixed.

What the FUCK TW?