Corporate Avarice Ahoy
Time Warner to test Internet billing based on usage
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc said on Wednesday it is planning a trial to bill high-speed Internet subscribers based on their amount of usage rather than a flat fee, the standard industry practice.
The second largest U.S. cable operator said it will test consumption-based billing with subscribers in Beaumont, Texas later this year as a part of a strategy to help reduce congestion of its network by a minority of consumers who pay the same monthly fee as light users.
The company believes the billing system will impact only heavy users, who account for around 5 percent of all customers but typically use more than half of the total network bandwidth, according to a company spokesman."
Corporate fascism knows they can't stuff the internet cat back into the bag, the genie back into the bottle. Internet usage has exploded over the past few years to the point where soon you'll surf with your toaster. Who the hell do they think they're kidding with their 'bandwith' crap?
They're trying to force you to use their bundled services to see your movies rather than download them from the tubes. Just like the RIAA going after file sharers, the internet poses a threat to corporate mega profits.
And it's not just serial volume downloaders who'll be hit with this scam. A lot of people leave their net connection open all the time. Programs update and transfer data automatically. They want to penalize SETI At Home participants? Stock traders? Data backups and photo archiving? Also don't think for a second that ISPs like Time Warner will cut light users a break with this.
Another honking roadblock to this scam will be the companies like Netflix who'll butt head to head with ISPs who charge by sliding scale. They won't like the fact their customers will have to pay through the nose to download movies.
For years people in this country have been used to a flat fee and they think a drastic change like this is an OK thing to do? One good sign is that even though this experiment's been leaked they've been silent on the pricing.
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc said on Wednesday it is planning a trial to bill high-speed Internet subscribers based on their amount of usage rather than a flat fee, the standard industry practice.
The second largest U.S. cable operator said it will test consumption-based billing with subscribers in Beaumont, Texas later this year as a part of a strategy to help reduce congestion of its network by a minority of consumers who pay the same monthly fee as light users.
The company believes the billing system will impact only heavy users, who account for around 5 percent of all customers but typically use more than half of the total network bandwidth, according to a company spokesman."
Corporate fascism knows they can't stuff the internet cat back into the bag, the genie back into the bottle. Internet usage has exploded over the past few years to the point where soon you'll surf with your toaster. Who the hell do they think they're kidding with their 'bandwith' crap?
They're trying to force you to use their bundled services to see your movies rather than download them from the tubes. Just like the RIAA going after file sharers, the internet poses a threat to corporate mega profits.
And it's not just serial volume downloaders who'll be hit with this scam. A lot of people leave their net connection open all the time. Programs update and transfer data automatically. They want to penalize SETI At Home participants? Stock traders? Data backups and photo archiving? Also don't think for a second that ISPs like Time Warner will cut light users a break with this.
Another honking roadblock to this scam will be the companies like Netflix who'll butt head to head with ISPs who charge by sliding scale. They won't like the fact their customers will have to pay through the nose to download movies.
For years people in this country have been used to a flat fee and they think a drastic change like this is an OK thing to do? One good sign is that even though this experiment's been leaked they've been silent on the pricing.
posted by nolocontendere at 8:31 PM
2 Comments:
Definitely a fascist capitalist move!
If this thing only affects high speed cable it could force many to down-grade to dial-up.
I'm still on dial-up but I've been planning to go to HS cable as soon as I get out of debt for my com. If this fast-kap plan gets legs, I may just decide to stick with du.
It's incredible, isn't it? Upgrading to dial up.
I don't think this will fly though, nick. The tubes are ubiquitous and people are too resourceful.
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