Time Warner to begin internet billing based on usage in SA (updated title) (Beaumont: school, live)

[Bo]

Originally Posted by SnappyBob

Bowie, what section was that article in?

Front page of the Business section, page 1C.

[cwh]

Originally Posted by Bowie

The Express-News had an article about this today (apparently not available yet on mysa.com ), which mentions that the trial of this in Beaumont will eventually make its way here. The manager who oversees the San Antonio office said in the article that 5 percent of T-W's customers here account for more than half of the bandwidth usage. In one case, a T-W customer used enough bandwidth to d/l 1,500 movies in a single month. That's more movies than a person could watch in a month!

With usage ratios like that, i am not surprised that a company would want to kick those customers away from the buffet table.

[CreekKnoll]

Why advertise one thing and say another. If you offer me a 10 meg connection, then I should be able utilize 10 megs 24/7. This is another reason why I'm waiting for U-Verse to be rolled out in my area.

[slaleman]

Originally Posted by CreekKnoll

Why advertise one thing and say another. If you offer me a 10 meg connection, then I should be able utilize 10 megs 24/7. This is another reason why I'm waiting for U-Verse to be rolled out in my area.

That's why it says "up to 10Mb/sec" instead of "10Mb/sec all the time" they know they can't deliver it all the time. I did a speedtest on mine at about 8:00 last night, and it was consistently over 9, so it's not horrible in my neighborhood.

[cwh]

Originally Posted by CreekKnoll

Why advertise one thing and say another. If you offer me a 10 meg connection, then I should be able utilize 10 megs 24/7. This is another reason why I'm waiting for U-Verse to be rolled out in my area.

Well if you read the fine print, they dont guarantee a 10 meg connection at all times. If you want a dedicated 10 meg circuit with dedicated bandwidth, it is going to cost you alot more than $50/month.

[cwh]

Originally Posted by slaleman

That's why it says "up to 10Mb/sec" instead of "10Mb/sec all the time" they know they can't deliver it all the time. I did a speedtest on mine at about 8:00 last night, and it was consistently over 9, so it's not horrible in my neighborhood.

Well they oversell the bandwidth because they know not everyone will use it all at once. So your 10 meg connection may only have a 1 or 2 megs dedicated to you.

[CreekKnoll]

Originally Posted by cwh

Well if you read the fine print, they dont guarantee a 10 meg connection at all times. If you want a dedicated 10 meg circuit with dedicated bandwidth, it is going to cost you alot more than $50/month.

OK, well let me revise my post for you:

If TW offers me an "up to 10 meg" connection, then I should be able utilize an "up to 10 meg connection" 24/7.

I mean come on, what are they going to charge. By the gig? I'm not looking for a dedicated circuit, with static IPs, and with bigger upload bandwidths. I just want to be able to use the road I'm already paying for to download at will.

[the_dimwit]

Originally Posted by CreekKnoll

OK, well let me revise my post for you:

If TW offers me an "up to 10 meg" connection, then I should be able utilize an "up to 10 meg connection" 24/7.

I mean come on, what are they going to charge. By the gig? I'm not looking for a dedicated circuit, with static IPs, and with bigger upload bandwidths. I just want to be able to use the road I'm already paying for to download at will.

I understand your point, and I think most other people would too. However, the concept of "shared pipes" just doesn't always fall into agreement. If the line you're connected to only supports a certain bandwidth number, and that number is exceeded when everyone "downloads at will" at max rates, then someone has to suffer.

TWC is basically saying that, since there is a small percentage of people who DOWNLOAD a certain amount of data (note this is not speed-related...it's a data count) that the utilization of bandwidth may be regulated in order to keep up. TWC is not saying that you can't use your available bandwidth. They are saying that they'll throttle your connection back once you hit a certain data-download threshold. This number could be something like 10GB per month...

It's going to be interesting how this unfolds, no doubt!

--Dim

[majormadmax]

Honestly, all I see this as being is another way for TWC to squeeze more money out of customers! My Belgian ISP had a cap on monthly bandwidth usage (I don't recall what it was, but I had an ADSL connection which may have had something to do with it), I rarely hit it but when I did it sucked.

If TWC wants to address those few individuals who are sucking bandwidth like Britney on a crackpipe, then fair enough; but if this is an attempt to gouge even more money out of me than I too will be looking elsewhere for a new ISP.

Cheers! M2

[CreekKnoll]

Originally Posted by the_dimwit

If the line you're connected to only supports a certain bandwidth number, and that number is exceeded when everyone "downloads at will" at max rates, then someone has to suffer.

Well then that's TWC's issue. They should reevaluate the area, and open the pipes. They advertise "up to" speeds. And if everyone is getting a fraction of that in a certain "heavily" utilized area. Then they would just have a bunch of unsatisfied customers. Streaming videos and music is also effected by this. Those files are temporarily downloaded to your PC when you watch/listen to them. Online movie services are effected. Not just those using bit torrent, P2P, or irc.