Time Warner to bill internet per download

[Guest H.A.V.0.C]

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.

 

Slowing network congestion due to downloading of large media files such as video is a growing problem for Time Warner Cable. The company said the problem will worsen as video downloading becomes more popular. But the move could prove controversial. Unlike with utility bills such as the phone or electricity, which have traditionally been based on usage, U.S. high-speed Internet subscribers have come to expect a fixed monthly charge. An Internet bill typically only varies based on the speed of the consumer’s Internet access. Time Warner Cable, which has 7.4 million residential Internet subscribers, is hoping the move will not confuse consumers if introduced nationwide and is planning a trial period. This sounds like an interesting pricing model for me, but most p2p users won’t be too happy about it, as they usually fit this “heavy users†category…

[BIGDANIEL]

I hope Beaumont, Texas isnt full of heavy users.

 

If so, I wonder if they got a choice in being the test subjects?

[-Rooster-]

The ones that have a contract Im sure do

[Pvt.-Jackson]

My wife is from Beaumont, well actually she's from Port Neches. But did y'all know that the motion picture of the year starring Keving Bacon, "Footloose" was set in the city of Beaumont? This is an interesting test from Warner because if you think about how many hours do you use your high speed per day? I would like to know.

[Guest Stealthknight]

well, considering Im always signed on through my PS3 and am constantly connected and typically DL'ing something when im not on my PS3 I'de say about 20 hours a day. So what do they do for online gamers such as ourselves because im sure it increases our usage and bandwidth

[Guest [iLL] Andawg]

They have computers but can't dance? Hmmm? interesting.

[John]

Not to be a stickler for details, and yes I did hate the movie- but. the movies took place in a town called Bomont. And was supposed to be located in Oklahoma because the true course of events the movie was based on happened in Elmore City, Oklahoma. The actual movie was filmed in Payson, Lehi and Provo Utah.