Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Time Warner Cable Tries Metering Internet Use

Posted by kdawson on from the been-there-done-that-gave-it-up dept.

As rumored a couple of months back, Time Warner is starting a trial of metered Internet access. "On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and download. Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte... [T]iers will range from $29.95 a month for... 768 kilobits per second and a 5-gigabyte monthly cap to $54.90 per month for... 15 megabits per second and a 40-gigabyte cap. Those prices cover the Internet portion of subscription bundles that include video or phone services. Both downloads and uploads will count toward the monthly cap."

2 of 589 comments (clear)

  1. GO FREE MARKET GO by abscissa · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The invisible hand will build FIOS to the McMansions in the wastelands and eliminate all bandwidth caps! Tax breaks will allow consumers to choose between all the free market competition out there, just like in my area where I can choose between exactly *one* high speed provider. At least that's better than a government monopoly where I would only have ONE internet provider!

  2. What about Internet "noise" by Alworx · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I wonder what happens about so called "internet noise", that continuous flow of traffic (typically bots trying to hack your devices) that yanks up your total traffic throughput although you're not doing anything particular.

    Or, for that reason, what about all those pesky updating programs (adobe, java, apple, windows update...)?

    I think the best way would be some sort of "best effort" approach. If you need to download something big, great, you'll get all the bandwidth you need... for a short time, though.

    If your hooking up to bittorrent (et al.), then your bandwidth will be throttled downwards, depending on what you pay.