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[moosehead]

if you won't, you better not plan to move to any of the US cities that only have Time Warner as the ISP provider:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/data/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216500302&subSection=News

April 10, 2009 06:05 PM

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Cable has released new pricing for consumption-based Internet billing the company is testing in some areas of the United States. The tiered pricing, which the company plans to roll out in other regions this year, includes unlimited service for $150 a month.

In announcing the new pricing, Landel Hobbs, chief operating officer for Time Warner Cable, said a pay-what-you-use model is the fairest option for customers while generating the revenue needed to cover the rising costs of an insatiable demand for more bandwidth.
The glitz and glamour of Interop 2007 Foundry's BigIron Layer 3 Backbone Switch Will Come With 16 Port Modules of 10Gig, But With Even Lower Power Consumption

Foundry's BigIron Layer 3 Backbone Switch Will Come With 16 Port Modules of 10Gig, But With Even Lower Power Consumption

At Time Warner Cable, usage among high-speed Internet subscribers has been growing by about 40% a year, increasing costs to maintain and upgrade the company's network, Hobbs said in a statement posted on the Web Thursday. "This is a common problem that all network providers are experiencing and must address."

Hobbs warned that without expensive network upgrades, Internet demand in the United States would outpace capacity within a few years, possibly as soon as 2012.

"This could result in Internet brownouts," Hobbs said. "It will take a lot of money to fix the problem."

Therefore, Time Warner Cable has chosen what it believes is the fairest approach, one that has people pay more if they use more, Hobbs said. The new pricing options included $15 per month for 1 GB of data a month at download speeds of 768 KB per second and upload speeds of 128 KB a second. People using more than their allotment would be charged $2 per gigabyte per month. About 30% of Time Warner Cable customers use less than 1 GB per month.

Options for 10 GB, 20 GB, 40 GB, and 60 GB a month also will be available with overage charges of $1 per gigabyte a month. For $75 a month, a customer can get 100 GB a month at download speeds of 10 MB per second and upload speeds of 1 MB.

The last offering would include overage charges of $1 per gigabyte a month, which will be capped at $75. "That means that for $150 per month customers could have virtually unlimited usage," Hobbs said.

Time Warner Cable is upgrading its network to a standard called DOCSIS 3.0, which is expected to increase download and upload speeds to 50 MG and 5 MB a second, respectively. Once available, the higher-speed tier will be offered in trial areas for $99 per month. Customers in trial areas will get two months of usage data before having to choose the option they want, and then get a one-month grace period before being charged for going over their plan.

Time Warner Cable plans to being trials in Rochester, N.Y., and Greensboro, N.C., in August, expanding to San Antonio and Austin, Texas, in October.

Hobbs said the latest pricing isn't final and changes are possible. "The Internet is dynamic and continually evolves, so our plans will evolve as well and aren't set in stone," he said.

Time Warner Cable isn't the only company to experiment with consumption-based pricing. AT&T is also running trials, and Comcast, Charter Communications, and Cox Communications are using different methods to monitor and manage bandwidth use. Tiered pricing also is used by network providers in other countries, including Canada, Britain, and New Zealand.

[moosehead]

talk about sucking the consumer dry

[dimnd]

on the west coast...bit cheaper in New England..but this takes the cake...suxxxy

[semi-fly]

I was paying something close to that even before this little "idea" of theirs came to light. I can't imagine why they insist on demonizing the masses because they (the internet service provider) fail to stay ahead of the technological curve. Look at Japan, Korea, the Netherlands all of them offer service above and beyond those offered in America.

In this day and age I can't imagine anyone in their right mind paying $150/m for Internet access. I can see the implementation of this consumer-based idea in many rural areas as monopolistic especially when the alternative is Satellite based service.

[bassexpander]

Corporations like Time Warner, and the money-grubbing dildoheads behind them have sold the USA out, reduced its power, caused this economic disaster, and are attempting to bleed the common man dry while taking away his ability to earn a decent income.

It is the fault of big business that we have sold the USA out to China. A few get rich off of the selling-out of the richest country in the world.

Wish we had someone like Teddy Roosevelt in this day and age.

[tsm174]

[moosehead]

many communities in the U.S. have taken it upon themselves to make internet access available to everyone -

I shudder to think about back-door deals being made in the rural areas where TW wants to step in so they sabotage these kinds of efforts

[bobranger]

[ChinaBoy]

[Robot_Teacher]

[moosehead]

S. Africans pay premium prices for internet there - and it's not even available everywhere, and broadband is even more rare.

the consensus there was unanimous that it was being used to censor communication and limit access to information.

S.African universities, for instance, offer long-distance learning on a regular basis but how can one participate w/o internet?

so too in the U.S., as online education grows, the have-nots will be locked out.

back in the day (help me here I can't recall the first ISP, before prodigy came along) it DID cost $150 for internet - and generally ONLY businesses and academic institutions could afford it.

this is nonsense and even criminal. I hope everyone that reads about this will write to their congressional reps about it and spread the word.

[pkang0202]

In my hometown there really isn't any choice on who your broadband provider is. Up until recently, with Verizon FiOS, you could only use Comcast. There were no other broadband carriers in the area. FiOS came in recently and they are mopping the floor with Comcast. Almost everyone I know made the switch because it was faster for the same price.

[Otherside]

[hanguker]

I'd pay $150 a month for my internet...

...if it was injected straight into my veins! The interweb is Tubes man, TUBES!

[DJTwoTone]

I was just reading on AP that there has been a huge backlash. Time Warners competitors were thinking about adopting the policy as well... but there have been so many complaints that those plans had to be scrapped... And it looks like Time Warner is going to scrap it too.