Time Warner to Meter Internet Usage in Four of the Cities It Serves

[devo]

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/44497

Thankfully there's other ISPs I can turn to should it ever spread to Columbus. My heart goes out to those affected by this who have no such luxury.

 

[oldskool]

If I didn't live in the middle of nowhere suburb of Rochester that I do, I'd be affected (no more Pictures I Like! No more TiRTS! The horror!).
As it stands we already dodged a bullet with Frontier's 5GB cap going down the shitter a while back.

Fuck Time Warner.

 

[griffinmills]

Really well written article, it addresses just about every concern I would like to raise. Pretty much makes WB out to look like the devil. "Everything's the devil with you MAMA!"

 

[Rendclaw]

The cable companies are playing russian roulette with policies like this. At least Comcast had the sense to put in a cap that all but the heavy downloaders will not even come close to hitting. I do feel sorry for those who don't have an alternative to shitty policies like this. Sooner or later one of the big companies is going get hit with a huge class-action lawsuit and then its on for sure.

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

Sooner or later one of the big companies is going get hit with a huge class-action lawsuit and then its on for sure.

Under what grounds? If they've set it out in their terms and conditions and you agree to it, then you can't complain. If their T&Cs says they can make changes without prior notice, and you've agreed, how can you complain? Just interested on how the American Legal system works since you guys seem to have a lot of leeway in suing whoever you feel like!

 

[oldskool]

Essentially, any lawsuit would center around the following:
* Why can a company like Time Warner be unable to survive with flat rate pricing in Rochester, Austin, San Antonio, and Beaumont, but can deliver faster speeds with no cap in cities where they face strong competition from uncapped providers?
* If the company was interested in an honest assessment of marketplace reaction to usage caps, why not test in communities with the most robust and challenging competition?
* Why is the nation’s largest cable operator (Comcast) able to deliver service with a 250GB limit at their current pricing, Verizon FIOS is able to deliver a product line twice as fast as Time Warner with no usage cap at all, and yet the nation’s second largest cable operator (Time Warner) needs consumers choosing a meager 20GB tier to not only pay $10/month more than their current unlimited service, but also pay a penalty of $1 for every extra GB?

http://stopthecap.com/

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

Ah so it'd be based on competition fairness across all users. Fair enough.

 

[griffinmills]

Sooner or later one of the big companies is going get hit with a huge class-action lawsuit and then its on for sure.

Under what grounds? If they've set it out in their terms and conditions and you agree to it, then you can't complain. If their T&Cs says they can make changes without prior notice, and you've agreed, how can you complain? Just interested on how the American Legal system works since you guys seem to have a lot of leeway in suing whoever you feel like!

(To give this post a bit of perspective, I've had to live and work with a Lawyer for many years now. : )

The American legal system was like that about 30 years ago but it is a different beast these days. Perhaps still a bit loose comparatively to some but the days of "Frivolous Lawsuits AHOY!" are long over. Lots of legislation went in specifically on the topic of frivolous lawsuits a while ago to help curb the madness of the 80's. One key difference contributing to this perception could be the fact that there is little in the way to stop someone from initiating lawsuits if they are determined. Plenty of cases basically never even see the inside of a courtroom or spend minimal time before a judge as they are settled, thrown out or dropped early on.

My best friend is a lawyer and he is constantly advising people to just "shut up and put up" when they come to him. "Whaaa, I got caught speeding..." etc.

Contract law, negotiations and I.P. are actually his current "specialties." (He would punch me for saying he has any specialties though!) Contract wording and negotiation is incredibly precise and contract law is very interesting and nuanced. For example, game companies often put all kinds of restrictions and rules into their online agreements and EULAs that, in California, are completely unenforceable with minors, a huge part of their target audience rendering them amazingly useless in a court of law. Companies also put all kinds of, what they call, unconscionable, wording and terms in contracts constantly. You can't give up your inalienable rights and shit you know! They are inalienable! Just because they put flowery phrases in saying they can legally kill you by contract doesn't make it legal...

Don't forget too that there are dumb and smart people in every facet of life. You get stupid lawyers and paralegals all the time making shit contracts and legal documents all the time even for the biggest of companies. Law can truly be said to be a case where, "Matters of great importance should be taken lightly and matters of little importance should be treated gravely." Remember too that contracts are just agreements for 2 parties to "do what they say they will do." They actually carry no legal weight as far as implementing law and such is concerned. Once someone feels they are being treated unfairly and calls in arbitration is when you start to see the law weigh in.

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

Hmm yeah would make sense if its being based on the fairness scale, thats stuff I have to cope with all day working in the Financial Sector at the moment. Though if Warner say we're treating all customers in this state the same then that could be seen as 'fair'. If, however, they're the only IP in that state then surely that could be seen as a Monopolistic power play.

In the UK most, if not all, IP cap their bandwidth usage, while they don't charge if you go over they will throttle your connection during busy peak times (6pm-12am). I'm not sure they'll be able to do that much longer though, they say they do this to keep it 'fair' for all customers to get equal bandwidth and the ADSL lines are becoming too busy. The whole of the UK is loosely set to become entirely cable starting from 2012, which will house a lot more bandwidth potential.

 

[Thoth]

Hah, they do this to me and it's hello Verizon.

 

[oldskool]

Hah, they do this to me and it's hello Verizon.

They won't do it to you because you have the option of Verizon, you lucky bastard.

 

[oldskool]

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090416/ap_on_hi_te/tec_metered_internet
Time Warner Cable Inc. is shelving its plan to bill customers based on how much Internet traffic they generate, following mounting public and political outcry.

Time Warner Cable's capitulation doesn't bode well for the future of metered billing of the Internet, in which people who use more bandwidth pay more.

Frontier Communications Corp., a Time Warner Cable rival in one key test market, Rochester, N.Y., also has dropped its plans for metering Internet use.

 

[griffinmills]

Hmm yeah would make sense if its being based on the fairness scale, thats stuff I have to cope with all day working in the Financial Sector at the moment. Though if Warner say we're treating all customers in this state the same then that could be seen as 'fair'. If, however, they're the only IP in that state then surely that could be seen as a Monopolistic power play.

In the UK most, if not all, IP cap their bandwidth usage, while they don't charge if you go over they will throttle your connection during busy peak times (6pm-12am). I'm not sure they'll be able to do that much longer though, they say they do this to keep it 'fair' for all customers to get equal bandwidth and the ADSL lines are becoming too busy. The whole of the UK is loosely set to become entirely cable starting from 2012, which will house a lot more bandwidth potential.

That's good news to hear for the UK. I used to work testing games (QA) with a publisher whose main office was in the UK and so I ended up becoming pretty intimate with what they had to go through over there as far as ADSL and internet were concerned, since we had to try and emulate home user conditions as accurately as possible. From what I hear pretty much every other country deals with metered or more restricted internet use vs. what we have her in the US. Back when I was heavily into WoW a lot of our guild mates were in Australia and their usage was incredibly tiny on their plans, like 5 or 10 gb a month. I remember one mate saying, "Yeh, I downloaded a DVD so I'm pretty much screwed for the rest of the month."