Time Warner To Set Bandwidth Caps In Texas

In another episode of “how we can screw everybody”, Time Warner has confirmed that they will roll out a new pricing plan in Texas that’s based on how much bandwidth you use. So instead of the all you can use one price that everyone enjoys, they’re now going to have “hard caps” on bandwidth. Pay $50 a month for 500GB, and if you consume more they’ll slap you with extra fees, most likely hefty ones. I’m sure that this aimed at BitTorrent users who do heavy downloading, and they say that this will improve network performance.

But I have to call BS on this!

While most people wouldn’t care that BitTorrent users will be hurt at the beginning of this, everyone will eventually suffer. People are using more bandwidth than ever, and that will only increase as time goes on. Don’t think so? Well just with Apple and Netflix announcement, people will start to consume more bandwidth. And with home networking becoming more popular and possibly with the elimination of physical media (Blu-Ray DVD), this country will use more and more bandwidth than ever. ISPs and telcos are lobbing hard against network neutrality so they can hit users with higher costs for more bandwidth usage. So not only will they charge you with their standard monthly fee, they’ll get you again if you go over your allotted cap.

Time Warner will only intro this only to new customers, but if people don’t get pissed about this and complain, you can be sure that the rest of the countries ISP providers will roll this out.

Start bitchin people!!!

[AP/Wired via Gizmodo]