Time Warner to bill on Internet Usage rather then flat fee

If (hoping its an IF) they're to offer light users a break, it'd be a standard monthly cost at a low price point. Then like cell phone companies they'd charge heavily on the overages.

Could see where they'd offer different level plans based on consumption - light, medium, heavy user plans. Though they kind of already do that with plans based on download speeds.

It makes sense why they'd do this. If 95% are negatively affected by the 5% and complain about it, they have a gripe. Still, its basically ISPs trying to hold back the "abusers" from bottlenecking everything...when there really shouldnt be constricted bandwidth to begin with.

 

This thread hurts me in my stomach.

 

WOW. You really are a cool guy.

I guess you don't have anyone in your household who has an online class with any college, right?

 

4..3...2..before Swoly realizes the ironic spelling error in conjunction with the quip about online classes.

 

What a large stinking, steaming pile of ****. Considering how much I send T/W every month for broadband, phone service, and premium cable channels, they better not try this on me. They have competition in Austin, and I'm already unhappy with them. Give me yet another excuse and I will change my service.

 

Sure, Hotballa... you must have read my post really really fast, since you have Time Warner... but I'll have the last laugh when your fat ass gets charged an arm and a leg... muahahahaha...

 

I have cablevision FTW

 

I'd imagine that most bandwidth use actually comes from the ginormous files people torrent when they're away from their computers.

 

p*rn will suffer

 

I doubt it
I mean . . .if you getting 20$ right now
why take 15 because someone is a 'light User'
when you can still get the 20$
and then get 25$ from the 'Heavy User'

It is about increasing profits

Rocket River

 

that is freaking lame, if comcast starts doing that I will get affected, not only do I have the computer, but I play games online, and I use my itouch on the wireless, then other members of my family use wi-fi too.

Downloading torrents will take a huge hit, if you use skype it's no longer free.

 

Greedy ****ing bastards, just like the phone company charging for text messages...what a joke.

DD

 

nerd unite!

send them angry emails in big bold red letters

 

If you're a little company and you see Time Warner getting $20, but you can still make a profit at $15, you're not going to charge $20 because TW would eat your lunch. The hurdle here is that there are a lot of markets that don't have adequate competition. But, I don't expect that to last forever either.

They can go to a model, like Shroppy suggested, of a flat rate with overage charges like the cell phone companies do. But, the cell industry already has its own customer-relationship problem with that model. It is possible that cell phones and internet connections both end up looking like electricity -- charging by the unit of use.

This is the most sensible model, to measure how much service people use and charge them appropriately. Why is it such a travesty that you have to pay for what you get?

 

What do you think it will do to all the places offering free internet - like coffee houses?

It is just a pure money grab, nothing more.

DD

 

Sucks. So we are going backwards? Instead of making the infrastructure more advanced, we are limiting people to their internet use or be charged mucho $$$$. LAME

They should be looking to upgrade their systems where ever possible, instead of changing their billing system.

 

Reminds me of this (not sure if it is 100% accurate though):
http://www.newnetworks.com/ShortSCANDALSummary.htm

 

And you wonder what's wrong with companies in this country and how we are regressing in so many ways lol. Instead of advancing we tend to take away and say we don't have enough to go around lol. This pictures shows 4.8 average for US but after doing more studies they found that the true average around the country is only a whopping 1.9 MB

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070529-survey-average-broadband-speed-in-us-is-1-9mbps.html

 

Out of curiosity, anybody know how this would affect online gaming.

 

It will cut the amount of online gaming down becuase when you play you are downloading and uploading a good amount of information. If they charge you by the amount of bandwidth you use it will be directly impacted by the amount of gaming you do online.

The more you game the more you pay.