It was nearly a year ago when TWC (Time Warner Cable) announced plans to implement bandwidth restrictions for its internet customers in the Texas area. Per the original plan, the city of Beaumont Texas was to be used as a test run for the cap restrictions, basically meaning customers in this area would no longer have access to unlimited internet bandwidth. At the lowest pricing tier of $29.95, the Beaumont experiment gave customers 5 GB of monthly bandwidth with download speeds of 786 kbps. The highest tier offered 40 GB of bandwidth per month at download speeds of 16 Mbps. Any users that exceeded the monthly amount were charged one dollar per gigabyte.
Apparently the bandwidth tests in Beaumont went better than expected because Time Warner is expanding the cap restrictions to more markets across the country. The latest cities that will be impacted include Austin and San Antonio, Texas, Rochester, New York and Greensboro North Carolina. Internet customers in Greensboro will be the first to feel the pain as Time Warner plans to adjust the pricing tier as earlier as April, 2009. The cable giant reports that customers in the other three cities will be affected early this summer. While Time Warner appears to be enjoying success with its metered bandwidth campaign, its existing customer base aren’t the happiest of campers.
The first announcement regarding restrictions and metered billing were met with scattered grumble among the internet community. Most customers just blew off the ordeal and forgot about it. However, reaction to the latest news was fast, loud and quite frankly, brutal. At first word of the move, a large number of TWC user-based websites emerged, pleading with customers to contact the company and protest the expansion. Members of news related communities such as Digg and Redditt were livid, screaming everything short of “bloody murder”. For the most part, commentary across the board has been negative. The majority of TWC’s customers view the move as unnecessary, claiming that it shows a lack of competitiveness and poses a theat to internet creativity. Although some customers have gone to the dramatic, the outrage is understandable.
Indeed, the average Time Warner customer probably doesn’t know exactly what a gigabyte is or how it relates to bandwidth. Apparently they are armed with enough knowledge to be skeptical when a company that is highly profitable starts tampering with a good system and complaining about not having resources to invest in the necessities. Many have also caught wind that being charged a dollar for a single gigabyte of bandwidth the carrier merely pays pennies for is an obviously ploy to keep revenues intact from the threat of web-based TV services.
As it stands now, it looks as if nothing will stop Time Warner Cable from monopolizing its huge customer base with pricing schemes based on metered bandwidth. And while the reception has been cold at best, the company is still willing to accept your input on the matter via phone or email. Good luck!
