Time Warner Drops Usage-Based Access Fees -- For Now

[babylonsister]

Time Warner Drops Usage-Based Access Fees -- For Now

Matt Hamblen, Computerworld

Saturday, April 18, 2009 9:14 AM PDT


Time Warner Cable's decision to back off from a usage-based pricing change for high-speed Internet subscribers in four cities demonstrates how politically fraught the governance of Internet access and pricing can be.

Time Warner's new CEO, Glenn Britt, issued a statement late last week saying the company had shelved the pricing trials in Rochester, N.Y., Austin and San Antonio, Texas, and Gressnboro, N.C. Those trials, which started only two weeks earlier, charged subscribers for the amount of bandwidth they used. Time Warner calls it a "consumption-based" model.

Britt said he had heard the public outcry over the pricing change in reaching the decision to pull back. It was an outcry that got members of Congress involved, and at one point U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., even met with him to describe Rochester's "outrage" over the proposal, according to a statement Schumer issued.

Maybe Britt would have been better off to launch the trials in other cities where the political machinery is not as sophisticated, one Washington insider remarked.

But the real issues involved are much more difficult than counting the number of demonstrators, or finding a way to quiet them, say observers.

The reality is that data use on the Internet is exploding, primarily due to video and other multimedia. It's becoming commonplace to download entire movies.

more...

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/163382/time_warner_drops_usagebased_access_fees_for_now.html

[annabanana]

1. The WHOLE blogosphere is going to have jo reamin vigilant!

This time it was Time-Warner, but it could be ANY of the cable companies. They are dying to gouge out some profit at the expense of small boards and individuals here and they will not stop.

This will remain an ongoing battle unless & until we get some serious net-neutrality laws in place.

[msongs]

2. TW will just increase the payoffs to congress and get its way eventually nt