Time Warner to bill internet per download
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…
Source: Reuters
Comments(142)
… and i highly doubt the extra cash they make will go on upgrades lol more like in there back pockets, lets face it they already make a huge profit, they could just as easy upgrade there lines to compensate all the new heavy users .. but no that would mean they would have to spend some of there own earnings, greedy bastids would rather just up the price and make u pay for it
