Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

[Dim Mahk]

Here's a tid-bit of info for people that might be affected by this great ISP. And yes that streaming you do with gameing counts.

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Apr 10th 2009 at 10:27AM




In a move seemingly designed to further our frustrations with broadband providers, Time Warner Cable has soft-announced an "unlimited" package once its new data caps go into place... for an affordable $150 monthly charge. Responding to criticism over the company's plans to start capping usage and charging for overages, Landel Hobbs clarified the provider's stance, letting users know that the capping would be limited to a $75 ceiling, thus (when paired with its top tier plan) would provide "virtually unlimited" usage. Virtually unlimited. Here's a rundown of what the COO proposes:

• A limited package for "light users" at 1GB/month, 768KB down / 128KB up, with overage charges of $2/GB/month.
• Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo packages at 10GB / 20GB / 40GB / and 60GB caps, respectively, and overage charges at $1/GB/month.
• A big daddy, 100GB Turbo package at $75/month with overage fees of $1/GB, which, when coupled with that magic threshold of $75 in charges, becomes the "unlimited" plan.

We only have two questions, guys. First, how will you let end users know they're hitting caps? Right now there's no centralized solution for monitoring bandwidth. Even cell phones show minutes used, so will you give us the infrastructure for broadband monitoring? Secondly -- instead of giving users a "virtually" unlimited package, why not just sell an unlimited package at $150 a month? The impression we get is that you want to leave the door open for aggressive users, and that your capping of capping charges might be a moving target in the right situation.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Heard about this earlier in the week, looks like Time-Warner wants to lose customers like Comcast does.

This is supposedly only going to affect the Roadrunner service and go into effect this August, so there's plenty of time to find another provider.

I'm thinking the Verizon service. Way to herd people back to the phone companies, guys.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

I'll start off by saying I am a VERY loyal Time Warner customer. In our area, we beta tested their ISP and have subscribed since then. It's been 10 years or more now and I have the most expensive non-business internet package they offer. (I also have one of the high tier cable packages too. So I'm a very good customer.) I have had maybe 5 issues with my internet/cable since owning my home for the past 10+ years. Each time I call within 2 days whatever issue I had is fixed and I'm back online/watching tv again. Usually its fixed even sooner than that so I've always been happy with their repair service also. Through the years, including very recently with AT&T's Uverse, we've been approached by other companies with similar or better offers than what we have. I have always looked them over and compared but rarely did I ever feel tempted to switch. Why fix what isn't broken? So, as you see, a VERY loyal customer.

Now unto this issue, if TW decides to implement this little instance in my area I will drop them so fast it will make their heads spin. This is complete and utter bullshit. This is what its all about in a nutshell:



TW1: Oh whoa is us fatcats making millions of dollars a year!! People don't watch as much TV anymore. Our cable subscribers are going down!! We are losing money!!

TW2: Oh but sir! The internet section is booming! Thats a positive!

TW1: Oh you twit! With our cable section, we can charge for tons of little things! All those little things add up! Movies on Demand! Renting our DVR boxes! Renting our remotes! Charging for premium channels! But if people aren't subscribing then we aren't selling!! With the internet we can't do those things!

TW2: Hmm...well sir if you want to make up for our failing cable then we need to figure out a way to charge them more for the same thing they are already getting.....how can we do that??

• * A limited package for "light users" at 1GB/month, 768KB down / 128KB up, with overage charges of $2/GB/month.

• * Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo packages at 10GB / 20GB / 40GB / and 60GB caps, respectively, and overage charges at $1/GB/month.

• * A big daddy, 100GB Turbo package at $75/month with overage fees of $1/GB, which, when coupled with that magic threshold of $75 in charges, becomes the "unlimited" plan.

TA DA!! And if people just bend over and take it, then they will succeed. People in Texas where they first tested this certainly did. If they hadn't then TW wouldn't be expanding to New York and other areas right now. And after those areas bend over and take it (OH COME ON NEW YORK! I had a much more tougher image of you!), even more of us will be.

And some of you will be like me and say "Oh screw them I'm changing providers!", but guess what!? Soon those providers will see that the TW customers bent over and took it so they'll start giving it to their customers too! So no one will be safe in the end. You need to stand up NOW! You need to start getting other people on the web informed about this. You need to also educate the people that don't use the internet much that if they ever do decide to use it more they'll get ass raped too. This is big business at their best, raping the little people for money that WE DON'T HAVE IN THIS RECESSION! Don't bend over people. Don't be one of the herd. BE HEARD!

[Amberly]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

lol

(Comcastic)

We are coming out with a 50 mg and 150 service in july and doubling our 6 mg and 8 mg to 12mg and 16 mg for free for our current users.

Sorry to hear about your TW service.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

I suspect the people who just bend over and take it are those that think cable is mostly for TV and the internet is for checking email. They're certainly not gamers, music/movie aficionados, sports fans or the like. They don't have iPhones, PS3s or DSi.

I haven't even used my TWC account for television in years, but I might consider TV again with Verizon's tasty packages.

[Dim Mahk]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

This is just 100% BS. Grandmom had it right in is dialog with the TW1 & 2 ppl. They say how the internet is hot like fire and they wanted away to capatilize on it and start a domino effect. Just like Cell phones and texting, back in the day when that stuff was free. just like the days you didnt have to pay for carry-on luggage, things like that. And what TW WILL do is start the chain-effect for the other companies to get on board and rape us all. I can see it now. "The Gamer package"

So pissed... I got all 3 services from these jack-asses. Now I'm wondering how much Bandwidth does my VoIP consume.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Ya when people think "downloading" they only think of the actual act of clicking on something and saving it on your computer. But guess what, if you watch YouTube or stream any videos and other things, thats considered downloading. Get pictures on your email? Downloading. Going to websites? Downloading. Any data you get on your computer when you're online, you are downloading. So even if you you don't download songs or shows or movies or games....you are still downloading every time you are on your computer. Thats how they get you, by making you think "oh I don't do much of that" but you do.

[Jarre]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

I use BT, I get 6mb/s download speed and 256kb upload and unlimited download limits (fair use policy does exist but I don't download more than 10gb a week so they don't cap me) I pay £20 for it ($35)

[Feba]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

fair use policy does exist but I don't download more than 10gb a week so they don't cap me

Then it's not unlimited, is it?

[Havelock]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

You've got to be kidding me. I just switched from DSL to Time Warner Cable last Saturday.

Comcast or Verizon needs to start providing service in my area again. TW took over the Comcast accounts a couple years ago, and Fios still isn't available here. No idea how or why, but Time Warner and AT&T seem to have this region locked down.

Anyway, not at all happy to hear about this.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

I've never once felt lucky to be a Comcast subscriber but...well. Wow.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Found out from Verizon that FiOS isn't available in my area yet, had to go through two phone calls and two stores to find that out since the people I was dealing with weren't terribly informed.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

Ya we've been on Verizon for about 3 years now with coming to our area. After pestering them nonstop for months, we finally got a direct number to a team member so we can pester them well.....directly! LOL The closest the fiber optic is coming to us currently is over 100 miles away. When they do come in this area we'll be testing it out for sure and I hope its before we get the shaft by TW.

[Dim Mahk]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

I wonder How they will separeate my VoIP phone download data from my Internet usage.

[Clever Ninja]

Re: Um.. Time Warner Cable WTF!

I get a 15mb download and 2mb upload for $50 by Optimum Online(subsidary of Cablevision). Thankfully I have a lot of ISP choices here in NYC, so if they try and institute this after seeing TW do it, I can gladly change.