Robin Hoods Playground

Time Warner Delays Tiered Pricing in Texas
Plans for tiered pricing still underway for North Carolina and New York
by: Shane McGlaun


ISPs looking to make more money off their subscribers have been looking for ways to raise prices of their web access for a long time. At first, many ISPs added bandwidth caps to all users under the auspices of trying to prevent piracy. Now some ISPs are not only instituting restrictive bandwidth caps, but they are significantly increasing prices as well.

One of the ISPs making the biggest waves as it ushers in new changes with its customers is Time Warner. The massive cable TV and broadband provider announced plans to implement tiered internet pricing on April 13 in San Antonio, Texas; Austin, Texas; Rochester, N.Y.; and Greensboro, North Carolina.

EWeek reports that the backlash to the announcements from consumers and Congress was swift and severe. After a massive influx of complaints from customers, Time Warner has decided to delay the rollout of the tier pricing plan in both Texas cities, though at this time it plans to continue with the roll out to Rochester and Greensboro.

Gavino Ramos, Time Warner VP of communications for South Texas told the San Antonio Express-News, "What happened as we're continuing to listen was we worked in some of the comments and ideas that got sent to us. We came to the realization, let's do this in October."

The tiered plan that Time Warner introduced would have seen customers in the four cities paying from $29.95 to $75 per month for internet access with strict bandwidth caps and overage charges of $1 per gigabyte for data usage over the limits. After criticism for the bandwidth caps Time Warner announced an unlimited bandwidth plan that would cost a whopping $149.99 per month.

Representative Eric Massa, representing the Rochester area, responded to the tiered plan with a threat of introducing legislation that would place limits on how much ISPs could charge for tiered broadband pricing, especially in areas where the cable company holds a monopoly.

Massa said, "Time Warner has announced an ill-conceived plan to charge residential and business broadband fees based on the amount of data they download. They [ISPs] have yet to explain how increased Internet usage increases their costs."

Time Warner COO Landel Hobbs released a statement reports eWeek saying, "We realize our communication to customers about these trials has been inadequate, and we apologize for any frustration we caused. We've heard the passionate feedback, and we've taken action to address our customers' concerns."

Despite Time Warner's claims of hearing the public outcry, Massa remains unmoved. It's very hard to justify an increase from $40 per month that the average Time Warner customer is now paying for unlimited bandwidth to $150 per month for the same service.

Massa said, "Time Warner's decision has the potential to more than triple customers' current rates, and I think most families will find this to be too taxing to afford. Time Warner believes they can do this in Rochester, N.Y., Greensboro, N.C., and Austin and San Antonio, Texas, and it's almost certainly just a matter of time before they attempt to overcharge all of their customers."

Thats B.S.

Thats nice, apperently Time Warner doesnt realise we are entering a 'ressession' ie depression, and incredibly dumb moves like this cause people to cancel their internet service thus not spending money, making things worse...

If this spreads I hope the US Govt does something about it...

I would much rather use my cell phone as a modem than pay Time Warner.

Time Warner Cable Drops Tiered Pricing Push
Shane McGlaun

Customers in Beaumont, Texas still get metered price gouging

Time Warner Cable has been under harsh criticism from consumers and politicians alike to stop their proposed tired internet pricing trials. The trials were to be started in Rochester, N.Y., Greensboro, N.C., Austin, Texas, and San Antonio, Texas. The trials would have seen users currently paying about $40 for unlimited bandwidth forced to pay $150 per month for the same service.

Time Warner has now announced that it is not going to be adding the new areas to its metered pricing trial. However, customers in Beaumont, Texas who are already paying for metered access will continue to do so.

Time Warner CEO Glenn Britt said in a statement, "It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption-based billing."

Much of the consumer protest surrounding the metered trials was in the Rochester, N.Y. area reports the AP. In that area, U.S. Rep. Eric Massa had said he was preparing legislation that would ban metered billing of internet access.

Timothy Karr from Free Press said, "We're glad to see Time Warner Cable's price-gouging scheme collapse in the face of consumer opposition. Let this be a lesson to other Internet service providers looking to head down a similar path."

Under the Time Warner metered plan, consumers would have paid at least an extra $1 per gigabyte over the miniscule monthly allotments provided. Streaming video would have been the hardest hit internet service under the tiered pricing plan. One gigabyte of data equals about three hours of streaming video.

Karr added, "Consumers are not going to stand idly by as companies try to squeeze their use of the internet."

Thank god!

Now if only I had some access to the media, if this happened in my area, I would hit the media immediately, and let everyone know what is going on, the impact, and how to protest.

Dude I can't stand TWC. Nothing about dealing with them is easy.

Yeah man they were going to do this in Rochester, NY and cap the customers until another local company appeared or "said that their service has no caps" they decided not to cap the users. TWC only wanted to cap them if they were the only provider in the area.