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Time Warner Cable To Test Metered Internet Access

Time Warner Cable may start charging customers $1 for each gigabyte of content they download from the Internet over a specified allotment.

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Cable plans to start testing on Thursday metered Internet access, charging consumers $1 for each gigabyte of content over their allotment.

Reports of the test, which would start in Beaumont, Texas, sparked immediate criticism from tech bloggers who believe it is an abuse of a regional monopoly. Time Warner, on the other hand, told Reuters and the Associated Press that the additional charge was necessary to address the problem of 5% of customers using half of the capacity on local cable lines.

if this really goes down im seriously going to have to switch to satellite..take away our magic games and now charge us for downloading?!? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/policy/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208401833

I feel so bad for you Time Warner guys in here. I used to work for Charter Cable, and thought it was god aweful, but TW makes them look like a million bucks. I think everyone should switch to the dish. I will give Comcast Internet props, I've had them for 8 years and haven't had one problem.

Yup I guess Time Warner isn't making enough money. They got kids to feed to ya'know.

What is our allotment?

Not that it really concerns me since I don't download full movies and games and what not, just curious is all.

Oh no, my porn!

my downloaded movies and burned 360 games

UCFknight84 wrote:my downloaded movies and burned 360 games

Maybe TW is trying to stop people who downloading movies illegally, like one of my neighbors who downloads about 50 movies a week including movies that just have been released.
I think that TW is going after those who may be breaking or bending the laws. I gigabit is alot to download in one week or one month.

It all depends on what the allotment is.

cougar13 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-


Maybe TW is trying to stop people who downloading movies illegally, like one of my neighbors who downloads about 50 movies a week including movies that just have been released.
I think that TW is going after those who may be breaking or bending the laws. I gigabit is alot to download in one week or one month.

Right, what if a user downloads legitimate large content?

Example: PC demo's, many of which are in the 2gb range per game.

Refined example: Downloading legit games online (i.e. Gears of War for PC). That download "cost" me ~10gb. So TW would've jacked up my price $10 for something I legally bought and downloaded on a line I pay for? Why?

Further example: Streaming educational video from your university.

YAE (Yet another example): Purchasing pornography / Sports streaming.

YAE: Sharing legal files on bittorrent

YAE: Purchasing music via iTunes.

YAE: Netflix online.

And so on. Yes, lets limit a largely honest Internet community (maybe you're cynical that everyone is out downloading illegal porn and music) because of youth (myself) clogging up their tiny lines that they feign are huge.

Seems fair. I guess you're a guy that wants the entire Internet actively monitored for child pornography? Yeah, it'll hopefully deter pedophiles, but it infringes on my rights. It's the equivalent of the dumbass cameras replacing police, the idea isn't to have a police state, if you get caught speeding by a cop looking for speeders, fine; but if you get caught by a camera which is generally recording anything, that's not a reasonable monitoring. We aren't supposed to be excessively monitored without cause.

Look up the concept of "least restrictive" laws -- this is what cable providers should employ, not dumb attempts to limit honest people using their bandwidth that they pay for. That being said, TW does have full rights to do this type of a plan, still, it's pretty bogus. Find another manner to accomplish limiting bandwidth for illegal uses; or admit you do not have enough bandwidth to go around.

EDIT: Though, I relent, there is such a thing as "too much" usage by a single customer even if it's legitimate content. So, whatever the allotment is defines whether this is fair. In reality, it's probably just a ploy for them to make more money.

i download about 10 gigs a week on avg, but i do my downloading at night around 1am-5am so most people are sleeping and i get faster speeds (i use newsgroups to d/l much faster)..No more Time Warner if this goes through

UCFknight84 wrote:i download about 10 gigs a week on avg, but i do my downloading at night around 1am-5am so most people are sleeping and i get faster speeds (i use newsgroups to d/l much faster)..No more Time Warner if this goes through

The usenet does not exist.

Do not spoil the fun, boy .

N4U|Redux wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



The usenet does not exist.

Do not spoil the fun, boy .

lmao

cougar13 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-


Maybe TW is trying to stop people who downloading movies illegally, like one of my neighbors who downloads about 50 movies a week including movies that just have been released.
I think that TW is going after those who may be breaking or bending the laws. I gigabit is alot to download in one week or one month.

Everything is moving to the net. Buying content like video games online. Live streaming video content (legally) bought through Amazon or Netflix. Online video games.

And, the quota is in: 40gb!

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... rrive.html

If you go above 40gb in a month, you get to pay $1 extra per gb.

Quite asinine, I'm pretty sure I could *legally* run that much data over my network in a month given what I do for research and that my method of choice for getting media (Music, Games, Movies) happen to be over the web. Thank god I'm not a Time Customer.

EDIT: The safe quota is even lower for other tiers, as low as 5gb for $30. That's insane. I'd do that on any given day, legally.

Generous caps (say, 200GB a month) designed only to rein in the top 1 percent of users sound more like a fair proposition, but a 5GB cap when paying thirty bucks a month? One can get uncapped DSL from companies like AT&T (that also offers more speed) for less than this.