Internet to turn into cell phone plans?

[jeffie7]

Wired News - AP News

Sounds like you'd buy your internet based on minutes (data) used.

yay!

guessing it would start out pretty cheap for entry level users at maybe 14.99-19.99 and then over time work its way up to 29.99-39.99 for basic, and god only knows how high "high usage" would run you. maybe 89.99-119.99?

All I know is if Comcast tries this, I'm jumping ship to anything that doesn't do this.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Time Warner Cable will experiment with a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging customers based on how much data they download, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

The company, the second-largest cable provider in the United States, will start a trial in Beaumont, Texas, in which it will sell new Internet customers tiered levels of service based on how much data they download per month, rather than the usual fixed-price packages with unlimited downloads.

Company spokesman Alex Dudley said the trial was aimed at improving the network performance by making it more costly for heavy users of large downloads. Dudley said that a small group of super-heavy users of downloads, around 5 percent of the customer base, can account for up to 50 percent of network capacity.

Dudley said he did not know what the pricing tiers would be nor the download limits. He said the heavy users were likely using the network to download large amounts of video, most likely in high definition.

It was not clear when exactly the trial would begin, but Dudley said it would likely be around the second quarter. The tiered pricing would only affect new customers in Beaumont, not existing ones.

Time Warner Cable is a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company.

 

[Briansol]

lame. i'll leave comcast if they do that too. i'm surely in the top 5% between me and E online

 

[BodyDroppedNikes]

i dont think that shit is gonna fly to well. that will be one big crock of shit if internet providers go that route.

 

[E_SolSi]

:ranting2: :ranting2:

that about sums up my feelings on this

 

[jeffie7]

i dont think that shit is gonna fly to well. that will be one big crock of shit if internet providers go that route.

So they only piss off 5% of their users and free up half of the internet doesn't sound like that big of a deal to them.

 

[Drake]

Yeah that would not be okay with me. I am sure people that just randomly surf the net will be pretty pissed off about it too. Imagine everyone going to Youtube, flash heavy websites, updating various software etc. They think they can get away with the minimum monthly package and end up going way over. I would imagine that they are not going to charge you on the things you actually download like the newest linux distro but on every page you view, video that buffers things like that.

 

[Citizen_Insane]

The Bandwidth has to come from somewhere. While it sucks for people like me, who use a lot of bandwidth, I also realize that I'm getting a free ride right now because other people are paying for me to use that bandwidth. Why should others pay for my downloading?

 

[Briansol]

it costs firms like comcast nothing for bandwidth.

They have a peering center in a meet-me room at a large (multiple) datacenter. private gig-e to their equipment localy in the datacenter (no bandwidth), out on their own cable lines.

I pay (and other server owners) pay for bandwidth passed.


the one company that DOESNT do this is the one thats going to be the most successful IMO

 

[xj0hnx]

I say let them do, and then sit back and laugh as their company goes bankrupt from losing all their customers. What a crock of shit.

 

[Capt. Orygun]

this was the way internet was back in the day, if they regress to it I'm leaving for whoever doesn't

 

[ScrapinSi]

Silverchild is right... Do people not remember when AOL was hourly?

 

[K2e2vin]

Shit, I'm on Time Warner/Road Runner.

 

[phunky.buddha]

it costs firms like comcast nothing for bandwidth.

They have a peering center in a meet-me room at a large (multiple) datacenter. private gig-e to their equipment localy in the datacenter (no bandwidth), out on their own cable lines.

I pay (and other server owners) pay for bandwidth passed.


the one company that DOESNT do this is the one thats going to be the most successful IMO