I know this isn’t WoW related, but I figured would send this news bit along. One of the things I watch closely is the internet service providers, and looking for the best and worst deals when it comes to my internet connectivity. I told Comcast to go F’themselves after dsl speeds increased to tolerable levels in my neighborhood. With all the “network management” crap they pull off as innocent effects my ability to use bit torrent, watch tv shows, list to music, and even use services such as Skype or Vonage.
For those who haven’t been following tech or geek news, Time Warner started testing a bullshit tiered approach to bandwidth usage on their network. Only in “test markets” mind you but still bullshit. Pricing would have started at $15 for 1gb a month. The tiered pricing goes all the way up to 100gb for $75 and charge $2 per GB there after. After public outcries, they added an “all-you-can-eat”, unlimited bandwidth package for $150 a month. Basically trying to impose ridiculous price gouging schemes on the markets they have, which is really nothing more than monopolies. The first tier of $15/1gb is nothing more than ridiculous, charging $1 for around 66mb of data. Where as the $75/100gb package charges $1 for around 1.3 gb of usage. All of this without any way to track or be alerted of overages.
With having years of uncapped, but already over inflated cable fees, costs and taxes, it’s understandable why people would be pissed off by this. I live in an area without Time Warner, and it pisses me off. What pisses me off even more is the very thought of Comcast(Crap) could very well be mulling the idea as well.
So it’s with great pleasure that I read today’s news over at the Register. “Public rejects Time Warner metered-bandwidth tests.”. According to the Register, and other sources, the backlash by the public has become a public relations nightmare. I must say it’s much deserved. Granted Time Warner has “backed off for now”, if they are smart they will just drop the idea altogether. The good news through all this, the smaller ISPs in the area are seeing a surge in new subscribers.
-Grex
2 comments:
Time Warner's been burning a LOT of public bridges lately. I have no doubt that their strict lock down on all of the music distributed through them has created its own irritation from the public. Case in point would be the fact they pulled all of the videos related to their artists from Youtube.
It seems like they are trying to shoot themselves in the foot with all of these decisions lately.
Not only is there public outcry, but there's been a bill proposed in Congress because of these caps that calls for all internet access to be uncapped. American ISPs are nothing but money-grubbing corporate asswipes who don't care about their customers. If they did we'd have pricing and speeds like Korea, Japan, and some of the EU, but we're stuck with the bullshit cable and telco monopolies.
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