Frontier Stuffs Time Warner's Tiered Plan (for now)

Time Warner Cable (TWC) recently announced plans to bring consumption-based billing to Rochester, N.Y.; Greensboro, S.C.; and San Antonio and Austin, Texas. This tiered/metered plan would provide for levels of service ranging from 1 gigabyte for $15 to 100 gigabytes for $75, with $1/GB over the subscribed limit.

Via engadget it appears that Frontier Communications Co., the local Rochester telephone/DSL provider, has shelved their plans to introduce a similar metered billing offering. Thus, it appears that TWC's plans are up a creek for now.

"That move bodes poorly for the future of metered Internet billing. Because the idea is unpopular with consumers, cable and phone companies need to match each other's moves in introducing it, or one of them gains a competitive advantage by offering the standard all-you-can-eat service."

Services in the Rochester area are fairly limited. Satellite has not been broadly accepted in the area. Frontier's DSL and TWC's Road Runner are essentially the only providers. As can be seen at Stop the Cap! Alternatives!, broadband service providers in this area are very limited. Let us hope that Rep. Massa stays true to his promise:

"Internet access is as essential to our economy as water is to our survival," said Congressman Eric Massa. "With limited choices in broadband providers, and virtual monopolies in many market areas, I view this as nothing more than a large corporation making a move to force customers into paying more money. I firmly oppose capping internet usage and I will be taking a leadership role in stopping this outrageous, job killing initiative." {Emphasis added}

With my interests in the computer security arena, I can envision asking someone with a severely infected computer why they had not installed the latest security updates and their response being that they had used up their metered service limit conducting a job search and filing unemployment claims!

Visit Stop the Cap! for information and news to "Fight Back Against Usage Caps for Cable, DSL, and Fiber Optic Broadband".

References:

• Public rage stalls Time Warner trials of consumption-based internet
• Congressman Eric Massa calls on Time Warner to eliminate Broadband Internet Cap
• Stop the Cap!

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