Time Warner To Test Internet Billing Based On Usage

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Time Warner says it is planning a trial to bill broadband users based on usage instead of a flat fee. While the company believes the billing system will impact only 5 percent of all customers, I have a feeling that most of us would fall into that category.

The second largest U.S. cable operator said it will test consumption-based billing with subscribers in Beaumont, Texas later this year as a part of a strategy to help reduce congestion of its network by a minority of consumers who pay the same monthly fee as light users.
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I don't have a problem with this as long as MY bill doesn't go up.

Somehow I feel like that's EXACTLY what is going to happen.
 
sooo let me get this straight...from what i see is that your going to charge a flat fee and then charge for the bandwith that is used? I am confused here. Light users will only get charges a very small amount... lower then the base rate that is in place now...

I dont know i think something is fishy in this. Its just like the whole " Unlimited download" when they throttle your bandwith after some time...
 
StillFunkyB said:
I don't have a problem with this as long as MY bill doesn't go up.

Somehow I feel like that's EXACTLY what is going to happen.
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thats what im trying to figure out... I could see them only dropping the inital charge slightly and then giving it to you up your backside with the extra charge of bandwith usage
 
I'm sure I won't be impacted with my 25GB/month usage :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I hope they lose a lot of subscribers.
 
I seriously doubt they'd bother if it only affected 5% of their customers.

Is it reasonable to assume that the proposal was made solely for the large financial gain of the company. Perhaps they're missing a zero at the end of the 5...
 
This is horrible news for gamers, who the f**k wants to be worried about their cable bill if you spectate in a fps or something and go afk, it's racking up charges while your taking your shit... i guess comcast doesnt look so bad.. FOR NOW at least.. hope this doesn't catch on
 
ICOM said:
I seriously doubt they'd bother if it only affected 5% of their customers.

Is it reasonable to assume that the proposal was made solely for the large financial gain of the company. Perhaps they're missing a zero at the end of the 5...
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Who wants to bet that maybe the RIAA or a group of such has a hand into this?
 
Don't forget! If this catches on, all those ads you see plastered all over the internet, those are costing you too now! Woohoo!

(Thank god for adblock and firefox)
 
This will create a horrible CUSTOMER experience, even for typically non high bandwidth users. Even if you are typically low user of bandwidth, you could have a month where you go way up in your usage and then all of a sudden are hit with a huge bill. Not to mention what if some old grandma's system got compromised and someone ran up her bandwidth usage. Now she would be stuck with a huge bill and no way to prove it was not her who did it.

I only hope that all users in Beaumont, TX complain LOUDLY about this, so they'll realize it is a horrible idea and scrap it. I somehow think that this trial will have nothing to do with user experience and more to do with how much it increases their profit per customer.
 
FalseGod said:
This will create a horrible CUSTOMER experience, even for typically non high bandwidth users. Even if you are typically low user of bandwidth, you could have a month where you go way up in your usage and then all of a sudden are hit with a huge bill. Not to mention what if some old grandma's system got compromised and someone ran up her bandwidth usage. Now she would be stuck with a huge bill and no way to prove it was not her who did it.

I only hope that all users in Beaumont, TX complain LOUDLY about this, so they'll realize it is a horrible idea and scrap it. I somehow think that this trial will have nothing to do with user experience and more to do with how much it increases their profit per customer.
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exactly even simple things like a chat client uses bandwith.
 
I don't know about AOL/Time Warner, but I can say that Comcast needs to do 2 things before they even THINK about pulling this off.

1. Match the internet speed and infrastructure with those of our European friends. The speed difference is too fucking embarrassing.

2. Be a little bit more reliable, at least in my area. Comcast has almost as much downtime as uptime anymore it seems. (I'm exaggerating, but not too much.)

It would be highly comical if Comcast continued to filter torrent bandwidth while charging us usage rate. Terminating packets would cause your internet to remain online longer because you come back to your desk and see that you need to resume the connection.. again.
 
I'm on Time Warner lines (RoadRunner). If they do attempt this, I will be canceling my contract. As someone said in a previous post, it shouldn't be worth their time if only 5% would be affected. And as Steve has stated, most of use would fall into that percentage. It's almost like the days of yesteryear when ISP's would charge by the minute, only this time it's bandwidth; this serves as a great annoyance.
 
hmm let’s see: They oversell the bandwidth assuming their subscribers won’t use it. After years and years of being overcharged finally most customers have legitimate uses; like watching videos online. Now they want to sell assuming their subscribers will use it.

Didn’t cable internet service beat out the phone company because it was a flat rate and faster. If they keep on this track I think fiber is going to beat cable for the same reason.

Sounds like me moving to an apartment complex that has VIOS is getting better and better.
 
Yea, people like most of us who leave their systems on 24/7. I have a HTPC, NAS, Gaming Rig, and Wife Rig running all the time. In addition to that I have a 360 and three laptops which can be in various states of use at any time. Between all that, I usually have some sort of bandwidth usage going at all times. Luckily it is not a big internet usage for all of this, but it has the potential to perhaps one day to get me stuck with a huge bill.

So what if I wanted to download a few HD quality movies from Live? Last time I checked they are about 5 gigs a piece. No way I would pay whatever it costs from Live to get a movie and then pay $5 more in bandwidth overages to get a movie.

This is even more disheartening as we see even more downloadable offerings than ever before each year. It is going to make people less enthusiastic to move to these things if they are discouraged by a huge price increase to do so.

I would consider switching services if they do start this program and it begins to affect my bill. Too bad the only choice I would have is AT&T DSL, which is probably not going to be much better if I can even get the same speeds.
 
Matthew_Krysiak said:
hmm let’s see: They oversell the bandwidth assuming their subscribers won’t use it. After years and years of being overcharged finally most customers have legitimate uses; like watching videos online. Now they want to sell assuming their subscribers will use it.

Didn’t cable internet service beat out the phone company because it was a flat rate and faster. If they keep on this track I think fiber is going to beat cable for the same reason.

Sounds like me moving to an apartment complex that has VIOS is getting better and better.
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That's what I'm thinking. Video companies are pushing hard for movie streaming utilities, and this would be a slap in the face for people who already stream games, movies, etc. Also, this would clearly be a barrier of entry to those who, in the future, will be streaming information to the house. This just seems like TW knows that digital streaming is the future for a great number of formats, and they're willing to capitalize on that. Of course they’ll play it off like they’re trying to help the grandmas and grandpas of the world since all they do is check email…
 
Geeze, if Verizon did this when I had FiOS I'd have to take out a loan just to pay it off.

Glad I ditched Time Warner back in '06.
 
One other thing I just realized, you know all of those tens or even hundreds of thousands of UNSECURED wireless routers/AP's that people have in their homes. There will be so many people seeing ridiculous bills all of a sudden because the whole block or maybe just the p2p addict down the road is stealing their signals. Even worse are the completely ignorant who will just pay their bill without any idea that people are stealing bandwidth.. bah what a mess
 
I could only see myself paying more if the bandwidth increased. Meaning: I DL something and normally I would max out at say 500kb/s...but if they implemented this I would want them to give me unlimited say +1mb/s DL before they can reasonably charge me for what I'm using.

I use comcast and in my area it's the fastest....next is qwest which is significantly slower....

BTW...I'm pretty sure comcast doesn't monitor my usage, at least not in stopping torrent DLs. I've never heard of such a thing.
 
They want to start charging based on usage, or so they say, but then they say only 5% of people will notice the difference. That tells you right there they're lieing about their intentions. Supposedly most people barely use their internet, so how is it that if you charge based on usage all those people aren't going to be paying less? Clearly what they mean is - "We still charge you as if it was unlimited at a price ten times or more higher than other countries, but then if you USE your connection we charge you MORE!" If they were being honest about wanting to charge on usage then that person you know who uses less than 50GB should be paying under $10. (afterall AT&T as part of their merger agreement had to offer $10 768Kb DSL - that connection going at full steam can do 237GB, assume a person only uses their connection 10-20% of what it's capable of and you get 25-50GB) Even before merger AT&T had that for $20, yet what does Time Warner charge as a BASE charge? $50.
 
It really pains me how powerless we are as customers when it comes to things like these. Sure we can disconnect the service, but what if every ISP starts doing this and we have no where to go? Some people don't even have options when it comes to ISP choice. It is either one or none.
 
It looks like people that play WOW and other MMORPG's on this plan are going to get raked over the coals. :eek:
 
By charging extra for more downloads, they are effectively killing off any IPTV or video service THAT IS NOT THEIR OWN.

What I predict will happen is that instead of getting things via Apple or MS/XBL you will instead have the option to go through T/W in a way that does not count against your cap or generate extra costs.

Just more things being done to give the ISP more access to your pocket book. Now that others have made things popular on the net, these guys want to cash in.
 
This is a step backwards instead of a step forwards. Why charge us for 8mb pipes when we can only use it for the first couple days of the month? How about reducing your pipeline bandwidth so your paying customers don't "abuse" the network? Oh that's right, because your crappy marketing departments counts on high pipeline numbers! What point is it to advertise on bandwidth rates when you can't use it? So much for moving to the digital age... no more streaming video or music. No more patching software or demos... Might as well go back to dial-up. Oh, and I better start getting paid for those advertisements since they take up more bandwidth than the content. Just look at Hardocp's main page... :(

I would have expected Comcrust to partake in this. Traffic shaping, transfer limits, lying that their service is the best and fastest, and enforcing a monopoly. Shady practices. Thank gawd I finally got an alternative.
 
Matthew_Krysiak said:
hmm let’s see: They oversell the bandwidth assuming their subscribers won’t use it. After years and years of being overcharged finally most customers have legitimate uses; like watching videos online. Now they want to sell assuming their subscribers will use it.

Didn’t cable internet service beat out the phone company because it was a flat rate and faster. If they keep on this track I think fiber is going to beat cable for the same reason.

Sounds like me moving to an apartment complex that has VIOS is getting better and better.
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i think my 6 mb DSL is as fast if not faster then most cable and i pay less per month
 
homernoy said:
It looks like people that play WOW and other MMORPG's on this plan are going to get raked over the coals. :eek:
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They said 5%. WoW players make up of 99% of the internet, so we don't qualify :p

(I'm grossly exaggerating and just being funny lol)
 
This all goes back to ISP's oversubscribing more users than they can handle. If you're selling people a 15meg download speed unlimited connection, then guess what, you better be able to provide that speed for EVERY SINGLE user you have subscribed.

Typical of American companies these days. Find a way to screw the consumer while maximizing profits.

Case in point, we recently lost power for 4 days due to the ice storms in Oklahoma. Many people were without power for up to 3 weeks. Our electric bill was much HIGHER that month than it would have been even though we had no power whatsoever for 4 days. How is that fair? Their justification was that it cost them x amount of dollars to restore power, so they in effect, passed that cost on to their customers so that they could still turn a profit that month.

This type of behavior is irresponsible and unacceptable.
 
FalseGod said:
It really pains me how powerless we are as customers when it comes to things like these. Sure we can disconnect the service, but what if every ISP starts doing this and we have no where to go? Some people don't even have options when it comes to ISP choice. It is either one or none.
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To make matters worse, these large companies have lobbyists and work very hard at persuading ($$$) lawmakers to see things "their way".
 
If my provider did this, I'll ditch them in a second.
 
I don't think games use much bandwidth. The impact will suck for those of us that download media and games (Direct2Drive, etc.). I think Netflix is starting a movie streaming/DL service soon too.

My only other option for an ISP is DSL. I know I'll pay out the ass for the same speed...:mad:
 
The problem with cancelling your account is where do you go from there? I have lived in many places and in everyone, there is only a choice of one cable broadband provider due to the franchising by local authorities. My choices are (1) move to another franchise area, (2) go dialup or (3) satellite connection. None of which I am partial to....they will because they can. This will not be a test of whether or not they will do it, but rather when.

Master Blaster said:
I'm on Time Warner lines (RoadRunner). If they do attempt this, I will be canceling my contract. As someone said in a previous post, it shouldn't be worth their time if only 5% would be affected. And as Steve has stated, most of use would fall into that percentage. It's almost like the days of yesteryear when ISP's would charge by the minute, only this time it's bandwidth; this serves as a great annoyance.
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k1DBLITZ said:
This all goes back to ISP's oversubscribing more users than they can handle. If you're selling people a 15meg download speed unlimited connection, then guess what, you better be able to provide that speed for EVERY SINGLE user you have subscribed.

Typical of American companies these days. Find a way to screw the consumer while maximizing profits.

Case in point, we recently lost power for 4 days due to the ice storms in Oklahoma. Many people were without power for up to 3 weeks. Our electric bill was much HIGHER that month than it would have been even though we had no power whatsoever for 4 days. How is that fair? Their justification was that it cost them x amount of dollars to restore power, so they in effect, passed that cost on to their customers so that they could still turn a profit that month.

This type of behavior is irresponsible and unacceptable.
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yeah but the problem there is your cant just change power companies not like most that can do it with the ISP
 
MajorDomo said:
The problem with cancelling your account is where do you go from there? I have lived in many places and in everyone, there is only a choice of one cable broadband provider due to the franchising by local authorities. My choices are (1) move to another franchise area, (2) go dialup or (3) satellite connection. None of which I am partial to....they will because they can. This will not be a test of whether or not they will do it, but rather when.
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DSL is available in most areas. Other more drastic options would be to go with other connections such as T1 or similar (although this would be extreme).


Now if they charged more for those 5% of folks, but offered unlimited bandwith, then I think it may not be such a bad idea.
 
Was it not too long ago congress was meeting to discuss ISP overcharging their services and possible breaking up some of their services? What happened with that?
 
Master Blaster said:
Was it not too long ago congress was meeting to discuss ISP overcharging their services and possible breaking up some of their services? What happened with that?
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They probably had their pockets lined to shut them up.
 
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