Time Warner's Bandwith Cap, A Very Scary Yet Real Possibility

Time Warner as we speak is exploring the possibility of implementing overage charges for its Roadrunner cable broadband service (and if I'm not mistaken they also own Comcast). What this means is that the users that use a lot of bandwith could see charges, and it also hints what could be implemented in the future. Time Warner is heading down a very slippery slope, where they could start charging all users to pay per bite of bandwith, this affects not only gamers but everyone. Anyway, they confirmed the following memo is real:

The introduction of Consumption Based Billing will enable TWC to charge customer based upon usage, impacting only 5% of subscribers who utilize over half of the total network bandwidth.

The trial in the Beaumont, TX division will apply to new HSD customer only, will provide a destination for customer to track usage for each month and will enable customers to upgrade from one tier to the next to avoid payment of overage charges. Existing and new subscribers will have tracking capability, however only new subscribers will be charged incrementally for bandwidth usage above the cap.

Following the trial, a determination will be made as to whether or not existing subscribers should be charged. Only residential subscribers will be impacted. Trial in Beaumont, TX will begin by Q1. We will be testing technical backend as well as Marketing and Messaging to customers. We will use the results of the trial to evaluate results for possible future nationwide rollouts.

Linkage

I'm not completely against this idea. I'm on a cable connection and if a there's 10 particular people in my area eating up bandwidth and making me slower they should be paying a premium. Now I do think it needs to be noted exactly what qualifies to be a user "using a lot of bandwidth," but I'm for the idea in theory. Businesses should always be free to charge more for their services if they think it is justified.

It's actually being practiced in several other areas. Some airlines are charging fat people for 2 seats on their flights. And Sprint PCS has actually gone so far as to terminate service to customers who are deemed "problematic" and spend too much time with their help centers (something like 2% of their customers take up 20% of their callcenters time).

I'm not completely against this idea. I'm on a cable connection and if a there's 10 particular people in my area eating up bandwidth and making me slower they should be paying a premium. Now I do think it needs to be noted exactly what qualifies to be a user "using a lot of bandwidth," but I'm for the idea in theory. Businesses should always be free to charge more for their services if they think it is justified.

It's actually being practiced in several other areas. Some airlines are charging fat people for 2 seats on their flights. And Sprint PCS has actually gone so far as to terminate service to customers who are deemed "problematic" and spend too much time with their help centers (something like 2% of their customers take up 20% of their callcenters time).

Robio_basic

I don't know if I am completely against the idea in of itself, like if I didn't think it could lead to something that would affect all users.

This doesn't belong here.