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Short answer- No
Long answer- Goodbye

Jun 03, 08 - 08:06 am Comment from: ChrissyOne

Translation - Use your Digital Cable box for content, not the interweb or Apple - OR THEY DOC YA. Well played, Time Warner.

Jun 03, 08 - 08:08 am Comment from: Connor MacBook

Oh, to live in a land where such a move causes a stir. Here in Oz BigPond charges 15c a MEGABYTE if you go over the limit.

Would you be willing to pay extra if the windows box you are using is so infected with spyware that phones home that it uses up all your bandwidth while you are asleep?

Jun 03, 08 - 08:12 am Comment from: macoverdose_dot_com

and the award for stupidity goes to ..... drum roll..... Time Warner

In Australia, all ISPs charge for plans that have a gigabyte limit. Ranging from 1gig, 3gig, 5gig etc up 10gig, 15, 25 gig etc. Some are "unlimited" but transfer rate is slowed to dial-up speed once your upload/download limit is reached. (Telstra' s 12gig "unlimited" costs about $59/month). Others are unlimited but very expensive. (Over $75/month). There are others that don't slow the download/upload speed, but charge exhorbitant rates like 25c per MB for excess usage!
Seems only fair that heavy bandwidth users pay for their usage thus hopefully making it cheaper for the low users of the world.

I don't hear them offering lower starting price points or any discounts for people who use less than average... So, F that then.

Jun 03, 08 - 08:16 am Comment from: mossman

$55 for only 40 GB/mo!? Even Rogers here in Canada doesn't bend me over that badly--I pay about $45 for a 60 GB limit.

My Rogers account level is only 8 Mbps versus TW's 15 Mbps, but that higher speed is salt in the wound--sure we'll give you a fatter pipe, but you can't use it as much!

Jun 03, 08 - 08:17 am Comment from: Asmodeus

Glad we don't have that crap here. But we've got something almost as bad... Crapcast and its total monopoly on cable here.

Will they practice what they preach? Will they also charge for extra data usage whenever they sell a pay-per-view movies? I think not! This is unfair abuse of monopoly power and I hope our government doesn't tolerate this.

If they want to cut out unfair internet usage, then block those greedy bandwidth sucking pay-per-view pigs too!

This is merely a way for them to take advantage of the booming trend of downloading/streaming TV shows & movies online. They want a piece of that pie and are going to hinder technological advancement unless you empty your wallet for them.

Actually, an open and honest pricing system managing internet "pipe" limits is a GOOD thing. Far better than secret cable company software programs that throttle back internet speed during heavy use. If ALL of the ISPs were open about how they handle this, then consumers could make an intelligent choice. I hope Comcast develops an open system, AND tries to make it cheaper than Time Warner's!

Yeah, Time Warner is "Progressive".

Here in San Diego, a disaster with their new TV system rollout. It's so bad, they spun off their TV "services" (i.e. punishment) to another company.

This company is bad. They forgot all about making sure they aren't in breach. They're ripe for a class action suit.

Time Warner is the ISP for broadband service where I live. The worst part of it is that they, of course, are a monopoly service in my town. So there is no recourse. Free enterprise competition, what a bullshit fairy tale!

So no, I cannot say goodbye if they impose this until a competitor appears and that isn't going to occur any time soon.

Does Verizon do this with their FIOS offerings? I was going to get Comcast, but all this throttling talk has turned me away. DSL sucks in comparison, especially where I am, but at least I can do what I want, when I want and for how long I want.

Jun 03, 08 - 08:47 am Comment from: moenrj

Do you get a rebate or discount if you don't go over their arbitrary threshold of acceptable use?

moenrj -

That's a great idea. Work it kind of like AT&T;'s rollover minutes and let people keep any unused bandwidth they haven't used.

That's exactly why I don't use cable services.
GREEDY BASTARDS!!!

Jun 03, 08 - 08:58 am Comment from: M. T. MacPhee

@beyondthetech:

++

Jun 03, 08 - 08:59 am Comment from: TowerTone

Beryllium
You and any other person or company are free to offer your own answer to Time Warner, through Wi-Fi, WiMax, DSL, satellite, or fiber.

Just gather up some money and do it. Your city council will most likely not object.

That is the Free Enterprise system.

It is what will keep TW from doing this nationally.

I hope that anyone using Time Warner is giving them an ear full on the phone or through email. I know I would be if I were using there service. I would let them know they start that crap, GOODBYE!!!!

We the customers can throttle there business, right down to ZERO!!!

I believe this is a way for Time Warner to battle Apple TV and iTunes in content downloading. (And its completely classless imo.)

If this does take effect everywhere I wonder what it would do to Apple's iTunes business (particularly in the movie rental department where each movie is usually around 1.5 gb)

Knowing the way SJ doesn't tolerate being put into a corner I wouldn't be surprised if he used his AT&T;partnership and really pushed forward to create a competitive wifi network via AT&T;'s towers that not only iPhones can access, but so can computer with wifi and it can all be on one bill and unlimited.

It's time to find another ISP, where in the world is AT&T;'s fiber?
As someone already mentioned, they don't offer discounts to those who don't use bandwith, so it looks like another attempt to extort some extra money. Remember few years ago when there was that big thing about cable companies overcharging? What did we get? Higher prices! Yes, they lowered monthly fees by $1 and started charging for $3 for cable guide, $2 for something else and suma sumarum we ended up paying more.

If this is only for new costomers... Who is going to sign up? Lets see, Pay more than ATT, get same speed, get less service. Uh, no.

Jun 03, 08 - 09:25 am Comment from: TexasAg03

The problem with this is that most people don't use anywhere near 40GB in a month, so they won't care. The bottom line is that Time Warner can limit use if they want, it's their service. I think they should, at the very least, offer an unlimited plan.

"You and any other person or company are free to offer your own answer to Time Warner, through Wi-Fi, WiMax, DSL, satellite, or fiber."

Why sure I am, Towertone, and I'm also free in my spare time to learn nuclear physics and build my own nuclear powered electricity generating station.

This "solution" is not practical for the individual consumer.

Jun 03, 08 - 09:29 am Comment from: mcdeans

> Work it kind of like AT&T;'s rollover minutes and let people keep any unused bandwidth they haven't used.

Hmm, I could start trading in bandwidth futures.....

Jun 03, 08 - 09:35 am Comment from: TowerTone

B
Luckily, you and no one else can build nuclear plants, or gas refineries, and soon, coal fired plants, either. Keeps the economy in Texas good.

However, you can build, or use, other means to access the internet.
Hence, no monopoly.

I don't have a problem with the concept, but the rates are absurd. It's like a 30% tax on iTunes movie downloads. Ridiculous. I could see 10¢ per GB over the limit or so, depending on their limits. But in this age, everyone should have at least, say, 20 GB allowed per month. If you watch TV online, or download video, it's normal usage.

Jun 03, 08 - 09:40 am Comment from: mr_matalino

Vote with your dollars...

Jun 03, 08 - 09:42 am Comment from: mr_matalino

Oh, and I find ironic that the cell companies are moving to "unlimited" calling plans and now cable companies are going back to charging extra

Next stop Time Warner out of internet business...

Jun 03, 08 - 09:50 am Comment from: TowerTone

"Next stop Time Warner out of internet business..."

That ain't gonna happen.
Eventually, internet is all that TW will offer.
Think about it.

Jun 03, 08 - 09:50 am Comment from: MacLovin

Ok, I live in Wisconsin, and my ISP is Excel.net. They are back in the 90's as far as internet service is concerned. (Their usage meter shows kilobytes, yes KILOBYTES!) I am paying $50 a month for a 384k/128k connection per month. I am stuck with this pathetic excuse for an ISP, because they are the only ones in our area. (I live in the country, have to have wireless) We have a pathetic, 4 GB download limit every month. We go over it all the time. After our 4 GB are up, we are reduced to a slow-dialup connection for the rest of the month. We have 4 people who use the internet daily, and even with just emails and web surfing, not including watching videos, we are pretty close to going over in the 3rd week of the month. If we want more bandwidth, it costs another $50 for 2 more GB! I would love to have a fast highspeed connection, I know people who live in milwaukee who have a 10mbps connnection for $30 a month, with no bandwidth limit!

So, right now, they bill me extra to get to 1 MB/sec download speed, and something less that 200KB/sec upload speed. So, I'm paying for high throughput. Now, they are going to change me to actually use my bandwidth? So, I pay extra for a higher speed connection with Time Warner, and they're going to say that my 5% uses up most of the the internet traffic? I already pay for that priv. Oh, now they want to reorder the payment so as to take more advantage of the consumer. Screw off!

If they institute this policy in Los Angeles, I am moving back to DSL.

Jun 03, 08 - 10:35 am Comment from: HMCIV

What surprises me is Comcast didn't think of this scam first. It's Comcastic!

Jun 03, 08 - 10:45 am Comment from: Tomball

I'm NW of Houston and have been a Road Runner and now Comcast user for years. I download using iTunes and DirecTV On-Demand. If Comcast starts metering I'll go to AT&T;DSL in a heartbeat.

Jun 03, 08 - 10:54 am Comment from: jtc

@macoverdose_dot_com

For Time Warner it actually isn't stupid to do. If you go over the limit then you surely are not downloading or uploading legally. And if you are then it's most likely they believe you are running a business and want you to upgrade and pay through the nose for business class internet which may as well be the same speed but they charge you more for it.

Comcast has a nice invisible limit which I believe is a little over 100GB a month. You cross it and you get a warning... again and they suspend it. Happened to some people I know. So I just keep it under 100GB a month and im good.

$1 a gig is not expensive.

Compare that to Australia, it's 15cents per megabyte when we go over.

Jun 03, 08 - 11:02 am Comment from: BC Kelly

Some of you may not know, or might not be thinking of this, but:

Cable Internet, at the local block/street level, is distributed via a "common node" so you have to "share" bandwidth with your neighbors. You may have a potential of 8 MB, for example, if you're the only one online. But once the kid next door starts downloading from UseNet, well, do the math.

DSL, however, is dedicated. So what you pay for is what you get.

Yes, it is chitty of Cable to charge extra for those who use extra, but is the nature of that technology. Unless you're the kid downloading everything - and doubt you want him eating up ALL the available bandwidth along your street, and paying same as you - you might want to get DSL.

Otherwise, hang in there a while longer. Won't be too many more years before all the "wire and cable" folks can kiss our ass.

Beam us around Scotty with that WiMax/WiFi/700Mhz/whatever ... just get us off the damn umbilical cords.


Thanks
BC Kelly
Tallahassee Fla

"This is unfair abuse of monopoly power and I hope our government doesn't tolerate this."

And what makes you think the government is not in bed on this? They have wanted to generate revenue from the internet for years. This is nothing more than a way to sneak in revenue generation through the back door. Pay more. Tax more. It's that simple.

Jun 03, 08 - 12:02 pm Comment from: stmix

If you think that's bad, how about getting your download speed throttled down to worse-than-dialup for 400MB? That's right, megabytes. And I pay $100/month for that privilege. Hughes satellite is even worse than Time-Warner. That's right, feel my pain...

Jun 03, 08 - 12:08 pm Comment from: NCIceman

I dislike this move. Hopefully free market enterprise will take care of this. The problem, however, is that there are really only a couple of choices for ISP, as one has only so many pipes into one's house. Be glad when someone rolls out fiber....

@BC Kelly:

DSL, however, is dedicated. So what you pay for is what you get.

Not necessarily true. SBC AT&T has a system where it uses mini-DSLAMs in the neighborhood, each fed by fiber or high-speed copper links. All of the users of this local unit share that bandwidth, although you do have the rated speed from your modem to the local unit. If everyone is using their max bandwidth, however, the same slowdown can happen as with cable modem.

MW: What's clear is that there ain't no free lunch.

And people wonder what Apple is saving up its war chest for. Moves like this just may tempt them to become an ISP.

Jun 03, 08 - 12:41 pm Comment from: derekcurrie

This is what is called PARASITE GOUGING.

What is going on in the background is the streamed and downloaded video revolution. Apple TV is just the tip of the ice burg of what is rapidly being developed, if not already here. Example: This Wednesday I am attending a demonstration of MythTV for Linux which will integrate computers with your entire entertainment center with Internet downloaded media as the main source.

So what does Time Warner want to do? DOUBLE the cost of your downloads. 4 GB HD movie? $4.00. Then DOUBLE that for the Time Warner highway tax. F*ck that!

As a reference, here is what I currently pay for Time Warner service in Syracuse, NY, where we have 4 competitors in the broadband market: $46 per month for 10 Mbit/sec download, 1 Mbit/sec upload. "Business Class" at my office is 15 Mbit/sec down, 2 Mbit/sec up. The total possible bandwidth via Time Warner locally is 20 Mbit/sec down max, 5 Mbit/sec up.

The competition: Version FIOS optical net service. ClearWire, who rumor has it will be using WiMax Internet connections next year. Meridian, using AC current access to the Internet.

FACT: If Time Warner tries this scam around here, someone else will NOT. Customers will ABANDON TimeWarner and go with the competition.

Meanwhile in Beaumont, Texas: Time Warner are taking advantage of monopoly status to screw their customers. They can get away with the scam, so they're doing it. There has already been considerable protest to stop this monopolist action, but Time Warner has ignored it, because they can.

Expect a mighty uproar as this disease spreads around the country to Comcast, etc.

:-Q**********

the bastards. I will not pay for my piracy bandwidth, that goes against everything i believe in as a pirate!

Jun 03, 08 - 12:55 pm Comment from: derekcurrie

Some comments on comments:

jtc sez:
"For Time Warner it actually isn't stupid to do. If you go over the limit then you surely are not downloading or uploading legally."

INCORRECT. Streamed and downloaded PURCHASED video over the Internet is already here. Go over your limit and the typical cost of a video is DOUBLED, with half the money going to Time Warner. Explain to everyone how that makes ANY sense.

Fighting back: DEMAND to your local government that your local broadband ISP monopoly END NOW! Get as many competitors into your market as possible. DUMP abusive ISPs. The customer rules. Make the service provider bend to the will of the customer, never the other way around.

Meanwhile, get your local government to instigate upgrading local bandwidth with fiber cable upgrades, etc. Clearly we are headed into a bandwidth crunch, so get on top of it ASAP. Don't give the ISPs any ammunition to support their GOUGING perpetration.