Top cable companies try reining in heavy web use

Redhawk · #1 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 07:46 AM

Top cable companies try reining in heavy web use | Entertainment | Industry | Reuters

Quote:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top U.S. cable operators Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc will begin testing ways this week to limit individual subscribers who use the largest amount of Internet capacity in an effort to protect their high-speed networks.

IronBuckI · #2 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 08:07 AM

As a fairly heavy user of torrents, other downloads, and gaming, I don't actually have a problem with paying for my amount of internet usage. I do find (like always) that the prices are too high for the services. $30 for the low limit is ridiculous and $55 for a mere 40GB is just stupid. Knock about $10 off of each of those levels and add more heavy usage tiers and I'd be all for it.

I'm just glad that I have DSL right now. It'll probably be a year or two before this experiment comes back as a success or failure for the cable companies, and that's another year or two that I don't have to go shopping for a new service provider or reduce my internet usage.

rocketman · #3 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 02:09 PM

It's like we're going back to AOL in the early 90's. Progress!

Time Warner's experiment is basically creating scarcity where it doesn't actually exist. Their not charging extra for more bandwidth (which could be argued as a limited resource), their charging for using too many bits of data, an arbitrary limit set by them. Time Warner is allowed to do whatever the hell they want; their a business, operating in a mostly free country. However, in many areas (namely suburbia) they have a stranglehold on cable and/or broadband internet access. With no competition in sight, it's tough to find better options. Kinda frustrating. Maybe this is the impetus for Verizon to bring FIOS to the rest of the country, or any other competition to move in and offer a better product.

IronBuckI · #4 (**permalink**) 06-06-2008, 12:36 PM

40GB in a given period of time equal to one month still fits the definition of bandwidth.

band?width (bănd'wĭdth', -wĭth')

n.

The numerical difference between the upper and lower frequencies of a band of electromagnetic radiation, especially an assigned range of radio frequencies.
The amount of data that can be passed along a communications channel in a given period of time.

I'm glad that I don't have to deal with this yet, but I do understand why they are doing it. Cable internet customers are getting screwed out of their alotment of bandwidth because of heavy users. Oneshot's thread about his new apartment and his search for an internet provider is one example of that. I don't think that the cable companies are necessarily going about measuring how much is being used in the correct way, but I don't know what the best way is, and I do think that they are trying to control, or at least profit off of the excessive use of something that is a scarcity.

Traffic shaping has already been ruled out by Comcast and its subsequent loss in the courts. So that's out.

Peak and non-peak billing would also be a solution, but that would be more controversial than what they currently have in place.

BuckeyeMike80 · #5 (**permalink**) 06-06-2008, 06:08 PM

We could go back to leased lines. Every user has an individual contract with the company. Although that would default to what is currently in place for most people though in all likelihood....

rocketman · #6 (**permalink**) 06-07-2008, 10:21 AM

I guess an argument could be made that they are charging you extra for each additional GB of data you download outside of 40 GB, but I'll concede that a 40 GB/Month limit is technically bandwidth.

Either way it's a terrible idea, and one that would never be successful from a business standpoint if there was actual competition in a lot of places Time Warner operates in. Big cities are a different animal, as greater population density tends to lead to more competition and more choice. Just look at Japan, for $20-40 a month they're getting 100 mbps. We pay more for a tenth of that speed.

IronBuckI · #7 (**permalink**) 06-15-2008, 09:07 PM

The rest of this story is just a wall of text. So I was hoping that someone could summarize for me.

Quote:

Broadband Providers Cap Monthly Usage

Glenn Fleishman
Sun Jun 15, 9:45 AM ET
At one time, the word "unlimited" meant unlimited. Sprint's mobile broadband service is the latest to abandon the term and the principle in favor of a monthly cap designed to keep their heaviest users from overwhelming their network.