Usage Based Internet Access Coming To Time Warner
Here’s an idea that is guaranteed to anger users of Time Warner Internet. Usage Based Billing is on its way to several markets in the U.S.:
In April, Time Warner Cable will begin collecting information on its customers’ Internet use in the Texas cities of Austin and San Antonio and in Rochester, N.Y. Consumption billing will begin in those cities later this summer. In Greensboro, N.C., the billing changes will begin sooner. Spun off from Time Warner (TWX) this month, Time Warner Cable had been testing a plan to meter Internet usage in Beaumont, Tex., since last year.
By charging a premium to the heaviest broadband users, much the same way cell-phone providers collect fees from subscribers who exceed their allotted minutes, Time Warner would upend a longstanding pricing strategy among Internet service providers. Typically, phone and cable companies charge flat fees for unlimited access to the Web. “We need a viable model to be able to support the infrastructure of the broadband business,” Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt says in an interview. “We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension.” Time Warner Cable has 8.4 million broadband customers.
Note this sentence from CEO Glenn Britt: “We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension.” Draw from that what you will. In any case, you can expect lots of customers to be defecting from Time Warner as I doubt users will put up with nonsense like this for long.
April 3, 2009 at 8:33 am
In England a company named NTL also tried consumption based billing. There was such outrage, customers were canceling
their service with NTL. Within ONE month NTL reversed their new billing policy. If EVERY TW customer effected by this new
billing scheme cancels their service, then it will hit TW where it truely hurts, their wallets. But it will take everyone biting the bullet and canceling service for it to be effective. Also, a supervisor named Iris Andrews is someone we can all call and complain too about this outrageous change in terms. We spoke to her last night for 30 minutes. Just call 336-584-1383 and get through to a representative, tell them you need to speek to Iris Andrews, and you should be connected shortly. If we dont stand together in this then TW will keep looking for new and inventative ways to charge us for services that we already pay out the wa-zoo for!
UNITED WE STAND!!!!!