40GB for $55 per month: Time Warner bandwidth caps arrive

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080603-40gb-for-55-per-month-time-warner-bandwidth-caps-arrive.html

by nickb • 18 years ago

20 38 18 years ago

Those caps seem pretty draconian. Key points:

  * 768Kbps connection with a 5GB cap for $29.95 per month
  * 15MBps with a 40GB cap for $54.90 per month
  * Customers will be able to see how much bandwidth they have left by visiting the Time Warner Cable web site.
  * $1 for each additional gigabyte consumed beyond the cap.

I worry that this won't scale well as streaming services become more and more common. That's bad news for startups expecting their customers to have flat-rate access.

dkokelley• 18 years ago

Wait, $1/GB after the cap? So it gets cheaper the more you use. Maybe I'm used to the cellphone model of obscene rates after the cap.

In any case, I'm glad I live in an area with decent ISP competition. If I was charged like this I would switch in a heartbeat.

noonespecial4• 18 years ago

Its expensive but its fair. The connection I have now is as much as you want, until its too much, in which case we'll just cut you off without warning.

I believe I might actually prefer the expensive and fair model.

dime• 18 years ago

5GB for $29.95 is hardly fair. Web hosting companies have found ways to increase bandwidth and keep plan prices at same or lower levels. Why can telcos do the same? $5.99 per GB is a ripoff. I have already called Time Warner Cable and warned them that if they implement bandwidth caps in my area, I will discontinue their service. I have other options in my area like Speakeasy or wireless internet providers.

Xichekolas2• 18 years ago

> I believe I might actually prefer the expensive and fair model.

Or, you know, they could have enough network capacity to support the speeds they offer.

Ironically I moved to Beaumont (the city in question) last week (girlfriend earns big bucks with Exxonmobil). I'm definitely glad I have a 6m/768k dry loop DSL plan with AT&T that doesn't have any bandwidth limits... especially since it's only $38.99 a month.

If they were really trying to fix a network problem by modifying behavior, it'd make sense to go after the top 1% of bandwidth users (which according to my last cable company used 35% of bandwidth) by setting really high caps and higher per gb fees. By applying silly things like 5gb caps, all they are trying to do is milk more money out people that don't know any better.

(If anyone in the Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas area wants dry loop DSL, you can save yourself time by calling the dry loop department directly at 1-800-264-0002. Sadly I don't even like AT&T that much, but at least they don't do retarded stuff like this.)

sealedidentity• 18 years ago

My angry response is: Nonsense. They can shove their internet where the sun doesn't shine.

Rationally speaking: These blokes were given a free rein and tax breaks by Clinton to develop sturdy networks capable of handling great loads and redundancies at multiple layers and levels. The fact that they sat on their asses all the while eating the money and spent virtually nothing on improving the internet experience makes them monopolizing culprits. If anything,the government should penalize them to the tune of billions for the disservice they've done the public. And oh btw, for these rates I'd switch providers immediately if I had an option or go back to dialup.

noonespecial4• 18 years ago

Hmm, I meant fair as in you know what you are buying for the money you are giving them because the declare it up front. Is this amount reasonable? Hell no. As has been stated above, these companies got massive tax breaks and subsidies (and sometimes monopoly powers) on the promise of limitless bandwidth and fiber everywhere. They have been essentially selling dial-up ever since. (At these caps, they still are). I call that stealing.

What I meant was, this is slightly more honorable than telling the customer that it is unlimited and then cutting off the account without warning when the magic undisclosed number is reached. This way the customer knows in advance that the service sucks monkey balls and can choose an alternative if possible.

sant0sk1• 18 years ago

Welcome to the suck :(

redorb• 18 years ago

I say its fair, but only if you charge fully by the GB or not at all; having a standard then add-on is trying to get the best of both worlds.

wave• 18 years ago

They will probably offer exception to websites owned/affiliated with Time Warner. This will encourage/force people to download streaming media using Time affiliated sites.

tx• 18 years ago

This is illegal to do. Content comapnies aren't allowed to merge or enter agreements with "delivery providers", unless there is a loophole.

gojomo• 18 years ago

Reference to the law making this illegal?

ESPN360 (from a 'content company') has been only available to users of ISPs ('delivery providers') who've paid licensing fees to ESPN. [1] This arrangement has existed for a couple years, at least. That would seem to undercut the claim such agreements are illegal.

[1] http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-espn-opens-broadband-ac...

LogicHoleFlaw2• 18 years ago

I don't think it's illegal... yet.

This is one of the key issues in the "Net Neutrality" debate.

xirium2• 18 years ago

This possibility has already been discussed on this forum. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=183541

poppysan• 18 years ago

Am I wrong, but didnt Time Warner pay 40 million for access to bittorrent last year with plans on distributing high quality movies online? This goes against what their goals are with regard to populating the web with high quality video. Maximum Suck!

noonespecial4• 18 years ago

40 gigabytes in a 30 day month looks like a continuous transfer rate of about 128 kbits/s. A little more than twice dialup.

Heh, watch out for bittorrent clients on your network!

bprater• 18 years ago

Agreed, good time to lock down those open Wifi boxes you've been sharing with the neighbors.

attack3• 18 years ago

No no. Dialup was 56KB/s not 56kb/s.

ivank• 18 years ago

56 kbps = 7 kilobytes / second

xirium2• 18 years ago

Watch out for large operating system updates, large application updates, email sending zombies and open wireless networking connections.

ssharp• 18 years ago

Sadly, this is years from effecting the masses. Although depending on the popularity of AppleTV, the Netflix box and other streaming TV boxes that timeframe could narrow. TWC also has to consider how it's OnDemand content is going to be affected in the long-run. And how long is it before the internet starts streaming cable programing with unlimited channel selection and HD? The cable infrastructure is poor and I guess they are seeing what they can do to hold onto their market share until a radical shift happens. Although, since they already do have a large market share, you'd think they'd be more interested in figuring out how to leverage the internet to deliver more content instead of just stifling their users.

They are doing this knowing that high bandwidth customers are likely to leave and they either a) don't care or b) are doing this specifically to lose the high bandwidth users. Cable is already pushed to its limits and providers are spending a lot of money to keep up with satellite's HD offerings.

Unfortunately for TWC, there are plenty of options and eventually this model will cannibalize their entire broadband business.

terpua• 18 years ago

This kind of thinking is the major reason why America is behind in the mobile access market and true broadband access.

Ridiculous.

pmjordan• 18 years ago

On the other hand, DSL and cable connections in Central Europe have had these kinds of limits for ages, and the flat fee and "fair-use" style contracts have only been offered on a broad scale for the last 2-3 years or so. (my parents & sister were on a 2.5GB/month contract until about 1½ years ago)

I suppose it's not held up the massive expansion of broadband as much here because the alternative, dialup, is even more expensive, at generally between €0.01 to €0.015 (~$0.015-$0.02) per minute. We've always been used to paying a premium for internet access, so when something comes along that's better value for money, more people jump on board.

The capped or pay-per-megabyte contracts are still the norm on mobile (EDGE, 3G/HSDPA/HSUPA) internet access though. But mobile communications contracts in general already have pretty draconian terms in my experience. (minimum runtime 24 months, small print overload, etc., at least you aren't charged for receiving calls/texts these days anymore)

vaksel• 18 years ago

This will never work, and thank god. There is a reason they are releasing in the boonies where there is no competition.

Why would I pay $29.95 with a 5GB cap, when I can get 1.5mb/s DSL for $19.95 with no cap

Why would I pay $54.90 for 15MBps with a 40gb cap, if I can get 20MPps FIOS for $39.99.

silencio• 18 years ago

Because not everyone can get FiOS or any reasonable alternative.

I'm pretty much stuck with time warner (offering 10+mbps downloads) or sbc (best is 3mbps for me and I don't even get those speeds) both for around $40 and I live in Los Angeles. There's a few other options, but not many that are uncapped (or have a more reasonable cap like Comcast's) or are reasonably priced.

If Time Warner ever decides to expand this program I'll definitely be one switching away even if it's something slower. On second thought, the more expensive offerings might be worth it compared to what I use every month and I'm not even counting the BitTorrent (legit or not) traffic, sigh.

josefresco• 18 years ago

I live on Cape Cod, not exactly the boonies, less than 2 hours from Boston and have ONE choice for broadband. No FIOS, no DSL, just Comcrap cable (with rising rates every year). They have me by the balls and if they capped my Internet there's nothing I could do.

dcurtis2• 18 years ago

There are a couple of things. Satellite and EVDO. Both are downgrades, but better than a 5gb bandwidth cap.

Xichekolas2• 18 years ago

I live in those boonies (Beaumont) and there is competition. 6m dry loop DSL for $38.99.

Sadly most people don't know any better.

gustaf• 18 years ago

This is happening at a time when 100Gbps is becoming standard in Swedish homes.

ojbyrne2• 18 years ago

The 40GB number made me think, hmmm, you could ship a person a hard drive full of stuff every month cheaper than that. It could be like a netflix meets bittorrent business model ;-)

dcurtis2• 18 years ago

You mean Netflix meets Bittorrent meets the US Government.

ojbyrne2• 18 years ago

Well, yeah. The smiley was a stand-in for the feds.

krschultz• 18 years ago

I don't mind tiered pricing based on consumption, but their pricing scheme is the ridiculous part. So long as the whole internet and all protocols are treated evenly, fine. So long as the limits are there clearly fine. Right now I have Optimum Online "unlimited" and I have been cut off twice for going over bandwidth limit. I was seeding 1 torrent for about 48 hours straight (Debian Etch) and they cut me off for "setting up a server". I don't know exactly how much I use in a month, but probably 50-100GB? 5 wouldn't last me 3 days.

mynameishere• 18 years ago

Read your user agreement. Any kind of server is typically forbidden for non-business lines, regardless of the bandwidth.

For what it's worth, I haven't had a moment's trouble with verizon, despite being firmly among the top 1 percent of users.

dreish• 18 years ago

The one positive thing I can think to say about this is that it will sting people whose Wintendos have been zombified by spammers.

But mostly it reminds me of why I cut all ties to the local cable monopoly last time I moved.

40GB for $55 per month: Time Warner bandwidth caps arrive

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