Time Warner kills metered access

[oddlycalm]

Time Warner backs down (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20090417/bs_nf/66036)


CEO Glenn Britt said that it was "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."

More like people understood exactly what metered service meant. :laugh:

oc

[TravelGal]

I have Time Warner cable and I completely missed that this was coming to a head. In my defense, I've been on antibiotics for two weeks so I can't say I've been the sharpest knife in the drawer.

The overarching lesson here is that is DOES help to complain. Most people do not, figuring it's useless or hopeless.

Two recent consumer victories in travel are USAirways ceasing to charge for soft drinks and Royal Caribbean adding a lot of extras for their concierge level passengers. The later was to compensate for the cancellation of some benefits but hey, they added a lot to compensate when they thought they could get away without it.

As in this case, it may only forestall the inevitable but maybe not. Maybe the voice of the consumer is sometimes heeded. (Hope springs eternal)

[Insomniac]

Small difference between that and monthly bandwidth limits, likely just the actual enforcement. Unlimited just doesn't mean unlimited with these bigger cable companies. I get unlimited at AT&T DSL plus the added benefit of the NSA spying on everything I do.

[Ankf00]

plus the added benefit of the NSA spying on everything I do.

quiet, you Bolshevik!

[oddlycalm]

Worth noting that Time Warner Cable didn’t cave because of customer complaints. It took many thousands of letters to congress and organizations like FreePress.Net and Electronic Frontiers that are funded by people like you and me.

Big media companies know that the new media landscape - with Internet users watching video at YouTube, listening to radio at Pandora and making phone calls using applications like Skype - is a serious threat to their monopoly control. This is just the first of many battles to come.

oc

[Gnam]

Wait until variable metered access is enacted for all utilities: cable, electricity, natural gas, freeways, etc...
It's gonna be awesome. :mad:

[oddlycalm]

Wait until variable metered access is enacted for all utilities: cable, electricity, natural gas, freeways, etc...
It's gonna be awesome. :mad:

It'll only happen if the voters go to sleep and let it. Democracy isn't designed to be an armchair sport. :D

oc

[cameraman]

Wait until variable metered access is enacted for all utilities: cable, electricity, natural gas, freeways, etc...
It's gonna be awesome. :mad:

Huh? It already is.

Water here is less for the first few hundred cu ft and then the cost goes up.

Electricity, the first 400 kWh cost less than the next 600 which cost less than everything after that.

[Ankf00]

not seeing the evil of metered use. sucks for us as end users, but seems fair enough considering the logjamming of bandwidth.



he fixes the cable?

[nrc]

not seeing the evil of metered use. sucks for us as end users, but seems fair enough considering the logjamming of bandwidth

Not a big deal except in markets where there is no competition. In markets with competition metered use wouldn't be an issue for long.

[Gnam]

I was thinking variable as in hour by hour.

Right now PG&E asks customers to limit power consumption during peak demand. Another way to limit demand is to vary the price of a kW/hr during the day: expensive during the day, less at 2am.

Same thinking for freeways. Rush hour would be one toll, off peak hours another. It would take some doing, but the technology to measure, record, & transmit consumption exisits.

[oddlycalm]

not seeing the evil of metered use. sucks for us as end users, but seems fair enough considering the logjamming of bandwidth.
Except for one minor issue. The big com companies agreed to build out fiber optic networks many years ago in return for the guv gifting them new wireless frequency bands for that little cell phone gold mine. You know, the bandwidth WE ALL OWN and they don't. So far Verizon is the only company to even begin to make good on that promise. The rest can go suck a lemon IMO.

The bandwidth squeeze is 100% industry manufactured and the only way they will deal with it out is to get kicked in the tail every step of the way either by competition or regulation. I'd much prefer to see competition but in the end their feet need to be held to the fire however it happens.

oc

[TravelGal]

Worth noting that Time Warner Cable didn’t cave because of customer complaints. It took many thousands of letters to congress and organizations like FreePress.Net and Electronic Frontiers that are funded by people like you and me.

Big media companies know that the new media landscape - with Internet users watching video at YouTube, listening to radio at Pandora and making phone calls using applications like Skype - is a serious threat to their monopoly control. This is just the first of many battles to come.

oc

Oh, agreed. Also USAirways didn't cave only because of customer compliants. Their own crew were rebelling.

In other news, Delta has announced that, in response to massive consumer complaints (and ONLY seven years later), it is abadoning its call centers in India -- at least for calls from the US. We'll see if they actually do that.