Mele20
Premium
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI
| reply to MacLeech
Re: [TWC] If RR places bandwidth restrictions question
said by MacLeech  :Do you mean you don't have a flat-rate baseline usage with overages billed at an additional rate for water, electric, phone, or gas services? Are any of your standard services "unlimited" for a flat rate? Are any "unlimited" services you have standard rate fees or are they a special tier above standard or normal services? Do you practice any sort of conservation or self-imposed limitations on any of your utility use? Are any of your appliances that use the utilities "Enery Star" rated or "High Efficiency"? ...or are you just using all of your electric, water, phone, and gas services like they're unlimited with no penalties for excessive usage? Like approximately 53-55% of the population of Hawaii I rent (in my case a condo). Utilities are included in the rent. The monthly fee charged each unit's owner for utilities/trash pick up/yard/pool work, etc. is fixed and based on the size of the unit. The fixed fee may change every few years and, of course, that is usually passed on the renter. So, yes, I try to not use utilities excessively although there is no way to tell how much my unit used in electricity, for instance, over all the other units in this building same size, larger or smaller. So, there is not a large incentive to conserve unless everyone in the building is doing the same. Our building is the first one in this town to go with the horrible florescent bulbs for all exterior walkways, fire escapes, lobby, parking lot, etc. and they have strongly encouraged tenants to replace incandescent bulbs inside their units. The problem there is the expense and renters may not be around to get their 8 years out the bulb so they don't install these. Some owner occupants do though. Plus, most of us have a lot of lights that are three way and no florescent three way bulbs are sold here, plus, I would expect them to be skyrocket high in cost ....all are extremely expensive. So, I don't plan to install any until the end of 2012. I would have to purchase all of them in the extra expensive extra small sizes for my fixtures. This building is 36 years old and besides the unit's fixtures my lamps are from the mid nineties and would need the tiny bulbs and they are three way which are not available here anyway.
I have gas stove and gas clothes washer and dryer and I have never heard of a limit on the use of propane! Water is unlimited and with the recurring plumbing problems in this building it had better be...it takes me 6 minutes to get hot water with all three taps running full force and that is every time I need hot water in the evening or late at night and sometimes during the day too...even 5 minutes after I let it run like that...it is cold again. Every time the water has to be turned off for the entire building for some unit for plumbing repairs this happens when it is turned back on and it is usually many months before it is fixed and then it happens again. Lest you think this is a crappy place...it is currently considered the best building in Hilo ....everyone wants to live/buy here.
As for the phone of course it is unlimited use! Long distance to other islands or the Mainland is a separate charge and that is based, as historically it has always been, on how many minutes you use and whether you have a long distance plan. But calls anywhere on this island are unlimited. I pay for Oceanic cable TV (basic Plus...45-50 channels) as part of my rent but I haven't had a TV since 2001 so it could be said that my conservation is that I don't waste electricity 4.5 hours (average American daily watching time) a day on the TV.
When my mother still had her home, just three years ago, there was no limit on utility use. Now she lives in an assisted care village and her utilities are a part of the rent and she can use whatever she needs and no one has mentioned rationing any utility. She has central heat and air conditioning. I have neither of those. So who is using too much utilities? Not me. Granted, heating is essential on the Mainland but central air and central heat...no, of course not. She keeps it freezing cold in the summer. I'm used to sleeping at a temp of 80-83. She wants to sleep at 65 degrees. The stores there freeze you to death with the air conditioning. Our stores keep the interiors at 77-80 (except for grocery stores).
When I got RR in June 2001, it was billed as unlimited ALWAYS ON, ALWAYS AVAILABLE and that was its main selling point. I paid my RR bill at Oceanic's office on Tuesday and the lady in front of me was asking about Oceanic's current special for RR Lite. (Oceanic just recently began to advertise RR Lite). The ad evidently is $14.95 for one month and then it goes to $19.95. She wanted it for $14.95 always. She said it wasn't that fast and why was it $19.95 when standard RR, which is a great deal faster, is only $29.95 for the first year. The CR said that the $19.95 was a big improvement over dial up which is usually around the same price because RR Lite was always on and it was all she could eat in bandwidth .
That is true because Oceanic just very recently posted the new TOS for Hawaii and there is NO mention of any possibility of bandwidth caps. The bandwidth capping is in the TOS/Subscriber Agreement for ALL other franchises. So, I don't know if that means Oceanic is not going to impose a bandwidth cap even if other franchises do, or if it means whoever wrote our TOS (which differs substantially in several ways from the one for everyone else - even differs from the California one) made a mess of it and another one will replace it soon or what it means. I'm pissed because Oceanic had been directing us the universal TOS/Subscriber Agreement for all franchises except California and now with our own they have removed the clause that allows the user to buy their own modem. For awhile there we could buy our own but now we again cannot.
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