Amid complaints of price gouging over the new broadband pricing structure its been testing out in select U.S. cities, Time Warner Cable has announced two new tiers for users with varying internet consumption habits. First, for just $15, you can sign yourself up for a 1GB per month contract, which will ... oh, come on. None of you use under 1GB a month. That's ridiculous. It takes more than 1GB to view our front page, due to our extreme high-def JPEGs.
The other tier of interest is the 100GB plan, which runs users $75 dollars a month. Each additional gigglebyte over that will cost $1, though Time Warner plans on placing a $75 cap on overage fees. Basically, for $150, you get unlimited high-speed internet. A hundy-and-a-half? Man, that's pocket change for us media maven types. We make $150 for every sentence in our posts. Which is good. Money, we mean. We like it. It's great. (Ka-ching!)
Reader Comments (106)
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 2:04PM Contradictions said
Of course the expect it to work, What other choice do you have, switch to DSL? I can currently choose between Comcast or DSL at my house. Can you guess which one I went with? Consumers aren't going to give up the Internet, and they'll pay 150 instead of risking overage charges. We have no choice unless the government steps in and keeps the ISP's on even playing fields that stand up for the consumer. These knuckleheads at TWC are content to keep trying to find out how much they can get away with for now.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 4:06PM Xocolatl said
Just out of curiosity--is any government agency (especially the consumer protection board and such) calling foul over this? Seems to me like they got people's hand tied pretty well, seeing as they are the monopoly force in the areas they are implementing this.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 5:31PM cue kalamos said
whats so bad about DSL? i have it and my ping in online games is less that 50 about 90% of the time
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 10:36PM (Unverified) said
Their symbol reminds me of the ones used for pedophiles to communicate to each other (I learned it on wikileaks).
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 10:57PM Deone said
Right, but if Time Warner goes in and starts charging 150, whats to stop comcast, cox, or verizon from going in and charging a third of the price. Not to mention the model of selling memory for usage rather than just access. Thats a model that cellphones are moving away from, and now a home based ISP is going to revert to that model? Just don't see them lasting too awfully long on that structure.
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Posted: Apr 13th 2009 8:05PM Ordeith said
tlarkin.
Government gave them the regional monopoly that allows them to charge the prices they want.
Why would you call on government to regulate a problem they caused?
I call on government to deregulate the internet market and allow competition within the municipalities!
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Government gave them the regional monopoly that allows them to charge the prices they want.
Why would you call on government to regulate a problem they caused?
I call on government to deregulate the internet market and allow competition within the municipalities!
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 11:37AM Pure Black World Tendency said
I have absolutely no opinion about this.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 4:13PM Bootes said
They started offering it so that there would be a plan cheaper than what was already offered when stuff was unlimited. The only claim that this is good for consumers that customers that don't use the internet much are subsidizing the connections of people downloading HD movies constantly. Of course then people realized that no one was paying less with these limits, some people were just paying a lot more.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 1:11PM Franklin Gothic said
It will ultimately end up like Cell Phone plans. Remember when you payed a ton for a handful of minutes? How many of you have relatively cheap & unlimited plans now?
Capping is an attempt to keep people from moving away from cable and onto services like Hulu and Netflix -- things the cable company doesn't make money off of. The strategy will delay such things, but only for so long.
the future happens, whether people who don't make money from it want it to or not...
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Capping is an attempt to keep people from moving away from cable and onto services like Hulu and Netflix -- things the cable company doesn't make money off of. The strategy will delay such things, but only for so long.
the future happens, whether people who don't make money from it want it to or not...
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 1:27PM Anticrawl said
Hell no they won't. If I had Time Warner I'd be switching to Verizon FIOS right away. It is like 25 bucks a month for an unlimited 20/5 connection. I love my COX (LULZ) connection to much to switch for now. Live next to LSU campus where they have a big contract so they constantly are whipping their broadband penis out to prove it's bigger and better which means I get unlimited bandwith a month and a 30,000 down 10,000 up connection.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 1:59PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said
@ Alex: I stay in Greensboro and have TWC....AT&T U-Verse will be launching in the next few months. So thats not entirely true....
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 2:59PM SpartacusMagnus said
Really? I have Cox (in Las Vegas) and I hate it. $60 a month for 12Mb down, which rarely happens. Verizon is much faster and much cheaper.
Dang it Verizon, come to Las Vegas!
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Dang it Verizon, come to Las Vegas!
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 11:42AM aramc said
This is like the early days of the internet where you got 6 hours of modem connect time a month for a fixed price...It sucked. This is going backwards. Quake is laggy as heck over a modem connection.
That being said, some people are bandwidth hogs and do slow down the network for everyone else. Pricing based on speed might be better.... Wait, we have that already.
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That being said, some people are bandwidth hogs and do slow down the network for everyone else. Pricing based on speed might be better.... Wait, we have that already.
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 11:44AM (Unverified) said
I have to say I'm very glad that Comcast took over TW around here. For $54/mo I have unlimited internet, and I'm basically limited in speed by my modem/router and connection to the servers I've visiting.
Maybe TW needs to go back to the model it had while it was in my area, before people leave it for competent competition. Which at this price range, will happen quickly. VERY quickly.
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Maybe TW needs to go back to the model it had while it was in my area, before people leave it for competent competition. Which at this price range, will happen quickly. VERY quickly.
Posted: Apr 12th 2009 9:44PM (Unverified) said
Comcast, unlimited? Comcast has a 250gb limit, i was banned from Comcast for a year because i went over that limit in February. Waiting for FiOS to finish running fiber to get them.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 11:43AM sonicspike41 said
Here's what I don't get. If it's $1 per GB for each one over the limit, and assuming each tier lets you pay $1/GB to go over, couldn't you get the 1GB plan and just... you know, pay $1 per GB after that and still save money compared to the other plans?
Like, if I get a 5GB plan it would cost $5 extra a month to make it a 10GB plan, which is still cheaper than the cost of the 10GB plan.
Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!
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Like, if I get a 5GB plan it would cost $5 extra a month to make it a 10GB plan, which is still cheaper than the cost of the 10GB plan.
Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 11:49AM (Unverified) said
In the article above (at least), an overage charge of $1 per GB over your limit is not mentioned for the 1GB plan. Typically, they'll charge you more than that so that there is an incentive to get a higher capped plan (much like how many cell phone plans still work).
If it costs 15 bucks for the 1GB cap, and 3 bucks for every GB you go over, that will run you 42 dollars for those 10 GBs you use, where the 10 GB plan much just be 30 dollars. We don't really know, but one would think that these companies are smart enough not to let a huge hole like that exist in their system.
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If it costs 15 bucks for the 1GB cap, and 3 bucks for every GB you go over, that will run you 42 dollars for those 10 GBs you use, where the 10 GB plan much just be 30 dollars. We don't really know, but one would think that these companies are smart enough not to let a huge hole like that exist in their system.
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 12:34PM nandokun said
I am with TWC in San Antonio. The service is awesome for the _current_ price. $44 bucks a month at 15 Mbs (with no cheaper alternatives at that speed for my zip code). And that's my speed from a couple net speed tests. With that said. This new pricing structure is about revenue pure and simple. They want more. Many suspect that they want to take a cut out of services like Netflix which keep people like me from even bothering with cable TV. I do 80 GB per month easy
So I've call up TWC to discuss this coming change. It is happening here in Texas in August for both San Antonio and Austin. Until then, they will be changing the billing documents to show you how much you use over per month over the next three months and what you will be charged under the new structure. I do have AT&T Uverse available in my area, which is fiber based service. They offer a no-cap 18 Mbs at $65, which I will be switching to come August. Hopefully it is reliable. Anyone use Uverse?
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So I've call up TWC to discuss this coming change. It is happening here in Texas in August for both San Antonio and Austin. Until then, they will be changing the billing documents to show you how much you use over per month over the next three months and what you will be charged under the new structure. I do have AT&T Uverse available in my area, which is fiber based service. They offer a no-cap 18 Mbs at $65, which I will be switching to come August. Hopefully it is reliable. Anyone use Uverse?
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 12:44PM sonicspike41 said
Nought, I live in SA and I use AT&T, but not Uverse.
For me it's $25 for 1.5 Mbs. It's (mostly) fast enough. I believe they offer a $35 plan with better speeds (either 3 Mbs or 5 Mbs). It works for Xbox Live, it works for streaming to my Xbox from my PC, and it averages 50-80kb/s on uTorrent.
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For me it's $25 for 1.5 Mbs. It's (mostly) fast enough. I believe they offer a $35 plan with better speeds (either 3 Mbs or 5 Mbs). It works for Xbox Live, it works for streaming to my Xbox from my PC, and it averages 50-80kb/s on uTorrent.
Posted: Apr 12th 2009 8:59AM ottoman673 said
U-Verse is pretty good.
I'm on the 6Mbit connection and i def. get the full 6Mbits. Before i had 3Mbit DSL from AT&T and i got about 150kb/s tops on uTorrent... Now i get around 600.
Service outages don't happen.
And the TV service is pretty decent too. if you can get a good triple play deal, take it.
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I'm on the 6Mbit connection and i def. get the full 6Mbits. Before i had 3Mbit DSL from AT&T and i got about 150kb/s tops on uTorrent... Now i get around 600.
Service outages don't happen.
And the TV service is pretty decent too. if you can get a good triple play deal, take it.
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 2:57PM kevin949 said
I don't know about you but I only pay 30 bucks for my TW service right now (15 down 5 up) and it's unlimited. 150 is much more than tripling my cost of service and you better believe if they pull this pricing plan out (when they do?) I'll be canceling service with them.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 11:51AM chargen said
Wow, what suckers they take us for.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/the-cost-to-offer-the-worlds-fastest-broadband-20-per-home/
Time to legislate this bullshit out of existence.
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http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/the-cost-to-offer-the-worlds-fastest-broadband-20-per-home/
Time to legislate this bullshit out of existence.
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 12:05PM (Unverified) said
"The industry is worried that by offering 100 Mbps, they are opening Pandora’s box, he said. Everyone will be able to get video on the Internet, and then competition will bring the price for the broadband down from $80 to $60 to $40."
Oh boo-fucking-hoo, tv for the most is full of useless content, during commercials most cycle threw tv channels, at least with stuff like Hulu you see the commercial, it's short 10-30 seconds and gets the message across.
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Oh boo-fucking-hoo, tv for the most is full of useless content, during commercials most cycle threw tv channels, at least with stuff like Hulu you see the commercial, it's short 10-30 seconds and gets the message across.
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 12:05PM (Unverified) said
160mbits/s!?
Having unlimited broadband, but temporary speed limiters(10mbs > 2mbs for five hours if I download 2-3gb during busy hours), might be better than what you're Yankees are getting, but still fuck it, I'm moving to Japan.
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Having unlimited broadband, but temporary speed limiters(10mbs > 2mbs for five hours if I download 2-3gb during busy hours), might be better than what you're Yankees are getting, but still fuck it, I'm moving to Japan.
Posted: Apr 11th 2009 2:59PM (Unverified) said
Looks like the coyote won't be contacting ACME anymore, he has TWC.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 12:24PM (Unverified) said
Read the small print, in the UK theres a fair usage policy.
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Posted: Apr 11th 2009 12:37PM (Unverified) said
Honestly this will benefit most people, it sucks yea but 15$ for fast internet for people that check e-mail, facebook/myspace and maybe a youtube clip once a month...
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