Poor Form Time Warner Cable

Posted on January 19, 2008, 12:59 am, by EricaJoy, under cable, greedy bastards, internet.

Before I begin this post, I want to remind you readers that the views I express here do not represent the views of my employer.

As a Time Warner Cable subscriber, I was a more than a little pissed when I read this story by Karl at DSLReports. In summary, someone from TWC leaked a memo detailing TWC’s plans to charge people that use a lot of bandwidth more money. Here is the bit that annoyed me the most:

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.

Oh I see. Because I’m a heavy bandwidth user, I get to pay more. Because I frequently buy missed TV shows on iTunes, I get to pay more. Because I stream my music online, I get to pay more. Because I’ll download the latest version of my preferred Linux distro, I get to pay more. In short, because I know how to use the internet effectively, Time Warner gets to charge me more money.

Is it conspiracy theorist of me to think this is a ploy to save old business models? Remember this is Time Warner Cable, who’s parent company (Time Warner) is also the parent company to New Line Cinemas, Warner Brothers, and HBO. In TWC executhink, making it more expensive for you to download content (legal or not) will send you back to the “old ways” where their business model is safe. If you pay extra to download content, they still get paid like a fat cat. Of course you can always leave Time Warner cable, oh wait, you can’t if they have a monopoly on your area.

If you’re not a “heavy bandwidth user” you might think to yourself, well you deserve to pay more, you’re using more! I’d like to remind you that in a short time, you too will become a “heavy bandwidth user.” When you start using the new iTunes movie rental feature or when you download a movie from Netflix. The next time you buy an album online because you really don’t need an actual CD. When new and interesting TV shows can only be found online because the cable companies don’t want to pay writers, remember that you will pay for the privilege of enjoying them.

Save the Internet.

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  • maryann
    but wait, it just keeps getting better. as of sept. 3, 2008 twc just removed 20 of my cable channels because i do not rent a cable box from them. for the last 14 years i have received these channels from a cable line, no problem. now with the change to ditial in 2009 twc is telling me i will no longer receive certain channels (how many they will take away, i still don't know) without paying a additional $7.50 or $10.50 (depending on which tw customer
    service person you are speaking to) charge for each cable box i rent. and by the way, you cannot buy the box from them, nor can you use a
    converter from an outside source. in my opion this is blackmail from a monopoly.
  • Thozman
    It's simple,
    If Time Warner implements a cap of 40gb bandwidth usage, I'll cancel my account with them and move to AT&T DSL.
    I'll also move from Time Warner cable TV to satellite TV.
    If they want to "greed" themselves out of business, the least I can do is help.
  • pete
    this is crazy,i cant believe twc wants to charge customers a certain amount of broadband usage.twc announces in 2002 and 2003 that they will offer the best highspeed broadband for customers,this means you will always be online forever and never have any interuptions online through broadband.twc announces in 2005 and 2006 that they will be able speed up the upload and download time.so now its at 976kbps,and 3mbps,but now time warner says they can speed it up to 10mbps,but will charge more the more you use the high speeds from 5-10mbps.so this means around 35-40 bucks a month for the 3mbps,then as much as 50-75 dollars a month for using 5-10mbps on top of your 100 dollar a month cable bill.so the more higher speeds you want to choose and use,the more twc charges even more for it.so i dont understand as to why now twc is starting this new billing tactic of over charging,actually price gouging customers over broadband usage.because after all,twc was the ones who said we would have the best highspeed broadband and be ahead of everyone else.
  • Liz
    I hate that TWC is the monopoly provider in my area. I don't understand how that is legal. The problem you state sounds a lot like net neutrality, but are we not protected? Maybe I am getting them mixed up, I often get confused when it comes to net neutrality.

    Either way, this is unfair and wrong!
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