Time Warner Cable Under Fire From Bloggers For Metered Internet Plan

Dow Jones:

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Time Warner Cable Inc.'s (TWC) attempt at metering customers' Internet use ran into a buzz saw in the blogosphere on Tuesday.

The plan, which Time Warner Cable will start testing Thursday in Beaumont, Texas, is aimed at charging users more for heavier volumes and faster service. Given the reigning orthodoxy that the Internet should be free, it's little surprise the digital crowd objects.

Blogs, however, focused their complaints on the essentially financial argument that Time Warner Cable's move is out of step with trends in usage and could end up costing it customers.

Bloggers questioned the size of the pricing tiers, especially in an age when downloading movies from Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iTunes store or Netflix Inc.'s ( NFLX) unlimited streaming set-top box could easily push consumers past the allotted bandwidth.

Read the whole story: Dow Jones

Comments

[NicoleAnonymous]

09:06 PM on 06/04/2008

This might be off-topic but do you think HP has a way of knowing all the other sites you're on? Sometimes I will go to online stores and look at shoes or something and then when I come here there is an ad for that same exact store trying to get me to shop there.

That couldn't be a coincidence but how can they do it when I work for a corporation with lots of internal firewalls?

[darthdarcy]

09:22 PM on 06/04/2008

DARPA..!

[NicoleAnonymous]

09:45 PM on 06/04/2008

Please speak english...

[larry278]

09:04 PM on 06/04/2008

Time-Warner Cable must be trying to drive subscribers away with its billing scheme. As another comment or so pointed out, one may subscribe to another isp if you get expensive & unreliable service from your current isp. Time-Warner has competition. The financial press & web sites are filled with stories of how Time-Warner is destroying itself. These stories might, possibly be true.

[darthdarcy]

08:37 PM on 06/04/2008

If all the subscribers of all Broadband were to form a corporation or 501-C3..and just contributed a few dollars very little we could potentially buy out all of the major Broadband internet providers and run it as a not for profit..then at years end maybe even pay dividends as well as increase the speed and quality since America is 15th in the world as it is..

This would also secure the internet as conceived and also end the threat to net neutrality..!

This is something I may pursue further..

[studlyguy]

03:37 PM on 06/04/2008

IT's called nickle and diming,and until the American people say enough of this ,and with the way the economy is with fuel and food prices ,that time is here and now,is the only way to stop this corporate GREED ,I think we have had enough of this bulls**t in America to last decades.

[Fathoms]

03:11 PM on 06/04/2008

Boycott Early, Boycott Hard.
Find a quality alternative and purchase that instead.

[JoeBlough]

02:32 PM on 06/04/2008

This is all apart of the Republican Business Model. Take something free and charge the sh*t out of it. It works with water. The internet is already paid for with taxes. So, of course, the RBM says it must be paid for twice. Only in America.

[drblack]

02:03 PM on 06/04/2008

I wish I had a High speed option that didn't involve corrupt companies like Verizon and Comcast.
I refuse to sacrifice my Freedom,self respect and values to be entertained.
I still use free dial-up. I protest with my money.
If everyone stopped giving money to these corrupt companies they would change. they would be forced to.
Don't complain, stop giving your money.
The internet is another Public infrastructure that should be public. Privatization requires profit and the least service for the most money.

[darthdarcy]

01:05 PM on 06/04/2008

If we were to nationalize the fiber optic network we could deliver service to the nations for .50 cents per day or less and maybe pay dividends at the years end..America is like 15th in Internet broadband service and speeds anyway..Time-Warner /AOL has been a disaster and ruined everything it's touched as it is..that's why they took AOL off the name brand logo so why not just let the subscribers be the owners..!

Let Broadband belong to the American People..screw Time Warner..! Then on to Exxon Mobil..their next..!

[tsloan]

10:35 AM on 06/04/2008

Greedy pigs

[JoeBlough]

02:33 PM on 06/04/2008

Part of the Republican Business Model. Suck it up.

[blytzd]

06:34 AM on 06/04/2008

LOL I was getting ready to change cable/internet companies... Time Warner is now off the list. Now to see if WOW or Insight are trying to pull the same thing. BTW I love how cable tv is actually pausing shows just to throw a in commerical (i.e. Family Guy on TBS with those damn Bill Engvall promos). Cable is quickly becoming a relic.

[OutsourcedAgain]

12:06 PM on 06/05/2008

TBS (also Time Warner) is the worst! The basketball play-offs were filled with their little BS promos. It should be illegal to throw commercials into programing. This gets kinda close to subliminal advertising. And they're no longer tiny ads at the bottom of the screen. They now take up a full one half of the screen.

[fillou]

03:43 AM on 06/04/2008

10 mega unlimited high speed internet in Europe : 29.99 euros with unlimited phone
Soon 100 mega, fiber optic (download a 2 hour movie in 3 minutes or less) : 39.99 euros a month ...

American people are really being economically raped by the US company and yet noones reacts.

[JoeBlough]

02:35 PM on 06/04/2008

It's all apart of the Republican Business Model.

[in4success]

03:07 AM on 06/04/2008

they never stop -- these greedy, fascist cocksuckers

[LiberalBuzz]

02:26 AM on 06/04/2008

Wondered how long before these greedy sons of bitches got a way to screw the customer out of more money.

I sincerely and with all my heart hope and pray there really is a hell so these jagoffs can be sent there for eternity.

The country is going into deeper financial problems and the only thing these greedy bastards can think of is some way to screw the people even more.

Rot in hell TW.

[JScott]

10:39 AM on 06/04/2008

Yup and I have them as cable/internet provider too but if they do this in LA SFV I'm changing.
Next they'll be metering your TV charging you by the hr or by the program, ya just know it.

And like I always envison their regular corporate board meeting one item on their agenda always is:

How we can nickel and dime our customers any way we can get away with.

And is this separate from AOLTW

Typical corporate media thinking.

[OutsourcedAgain]

11:58 AM on 06/05/2008

I agree. I hope their little corner in hell is the one right next to the heater.

[JustineBateman]

12:30 AM on 06/04/2008

GET INVOLVED IN NET NEUTRALITY www.savetheinternet.com

[OutsourcedAgain]

12:19 AM on 06/04/2008

I discovered that TWC was giving me slower service than I had agreed to when I signed up. When asked about it I got the run around about how "they must be working on the cables in your area". Two months later their story has changed. But my slower speed has not. So since I can get both my TV and internet service cheaper from another service I'm making a switch.

Since the only power we have as consumers is the power of the wallet, everyone with TWC should send a message to all the telecoms by switching to someone else. That way the next provider will think twice before trying to stick it to the consumer.