 trparkyApple... YUMPremium,MVM
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
kudos:2
 ·Time Warner Cable
1 edit | Launching An Optional Usage-Based Pricing Plan In STexas quote:
Today, we are launching an optional usage-based pricing program for customers who want to save money on their broadband bills in southern Texas. This includes San Antonio, Laredo, Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley and the Border Corridor.
Details are explained in this post, but if you find that you want more information, you can find that here: ‘Essentials’ Broadband Information.
Yes, we did try this before, a few years ago. And yes, pretty much everyone agrees that it didn’t go so well. So we listened to customer complaints. A lot.
Consequently, Time Warner Cable customers will always have access to unlimited broadband at a flat monthly rate. Usage-based consumption is optional, and it’s designed to save light users money. Customers can switch back and forth as often as they like, but if they choose not to switch, nobody’s switching anything for them.
We profit from unlimited consumption, and a free, open Internet is the sort of Internet that has gotten us this far.
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1) Up to 5GB/month of data transmission for a $5/month discount from one’s current monthly bill. All Standard, Basic and Lite broadband customers will be eligible. Turbo, Extreme and Wideband customers will continue as always, with access to unlimited broadband and no optional tiered plan or discounts.
2) The ability to opt-in and opt-out of a tiered package at any time.
3) A “meter” that tracks usage on a daily, monthly, weekly or even hourly basis, enabling customers to accurately gauge usage. Below is an example of the hourly meter:
More can be found at the link below... » www.twcableuntangled.com/2012/02···texas-2/--
Tom
Boycott AT&T uVerse! | Tom's Android Blog | Droid Charge TweakStock by dwitherell |
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trparkyApple... YUMPremium,MVM
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
| As long as they keep their promise of providing unlimited Internet access, then I'll be happy.
I've already used 215.91 GBs this month according to TomatoUSB on my Linksys E3000 and the month before that I used 342.28 GBs and the month before that 590.00 GBs
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Tom
Boycott AT&T uVerse! | Tom's Android Blog | Droid Charge TweakStock by dwitherell |
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 djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
kudos:1
 ·VOIPo
 ·Verizon Wireless..
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·PHONE POWER
| reply to trparky
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. This is in line with what Britt said last July:
"Britt told investors he believes “there should remain an unlimited plan for those who want to buy that,” and suggested Time Warner Cable might not be interested in applying usage pricing on every level of its broadband service."
It's pretty rare to see a big company like TWC make a 180 degree turn around, but it does sound like TWC listened to their customers in this case. Kudos to them for that.
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AT&T U-Hearse - RIP Unlimited Internet 1995-2011
Rethink Billable.
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 ThalerPremium
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA
kudos:3 | reply to trparky
A 5 GB/month service is nigh-useless for a residential ISP. Most sites today really stack on the media for a full web browsing client (ie. non-mobile formatted content). God forbid your computer requires service packs and/or patches - there goes half your bandwidth for the month!
Even for the budget minded, stepping down to this low of a cap for a savings of $5 doesn't make any sense. Maybe if the service was $5/month total, sure, but not just a -$5 discount. |
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etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
Dallas, TX
kudos:1 | reply to trparky
Interesting but how well this is going to be received? On the other side this could be a 'foot in the door' tactic and what prevents TWC from pulling an 'at&t unlimited wireless' later?
'Knocking off a few dollars' seems too little, how about a flat $1 per GB? If someone use 5GB per month then bill the customer $5... period.
This metered offer seems too lame, I doubt anybody will bite considering that Corpus and the border corridor along the rgv division don't even offer docsis3.0 wideband. Deploy wideband first and then make offers. |
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 hobgoblinSortof AgoblinPremium
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY
kudos:8 | "'Knocking off a few dollars' seems too little, how about a flat $1 per GB? If someone use 5GB per month then bill the customer $5... period."
I think you are missing the point. But OK, so if you use 80GB you get charged $80? 200GB $200, etc. You would like that?
Hob
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
Dallas, TX
kudos:1 | said by hobgoblin:"'Knocking off a few dollars' seems too little, how about a flat $1 per GB? If someone use 5GB per month then bill the customer $5... period."
I think you are missing the point. But OK, so if you use 80GB you get charged $80? 200GB $200, etc. You would like that?
Hob
LOL I didn't think of that 
Getting ready to go to bed. |
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hobgoblinSortof AgoblinPremium
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY
kudos:8 | "Getting ready to go to bed."
Night |
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 CptGeminiInside your computerPremium
join:2004-11-29
Corpus Christi, TX
kudos:6
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to trparky
Same here, according to the meter in DD-WRT ive used about 260gb or so. I can definitely curb my usage somewhat but seeing that the connection is shared between a total of 3 people myself included it isn't easy to cut usage down too much. |
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hobgoblinSortof AgoblinPremium
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY
kudos:8 | "Same here, according to the meter in DD-WRT ive used about 260gb or so. I can definitely curb my usage somewhat but seeing that the connection is shared between a total of 3 people myself included it isn't easy to cut usage down too much."
So this plan is not for you....but it does has merits.
Hob
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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 The LimitPremium
join:2007-09-25
Greensboro, NC
kudos:2 | ...I have a feeling, from the track record of this company, that eventually this won't be optional in the future.
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Do or do not, there is no try! - Yoda |
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The LimitPremium
join:2007-09-25
Greensboro, NC
kudos:2 | reply to trparky
"Time Warner Cable began testing usage-based pricing in 2009. Although many customers were interested in the plan, many others were not and we decided to not proceed with implementation of the plan. Over the past few years, we consulted with our customers and other interested parties to ensure that community needs are being met and in late 2011 we began testing meters which will calculate Internet usage."
Who are these "customers" and "interested parties"? I was never included in this survey, as were many students who live in my area. In fact, a large group of students that I know at the college protested against moving towards a UBB pricing scheme.
Extremely vague.
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Do or do not, there is no try! - Yoda |
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CptGeminiInside your computerPremium
join:2004-11-29
Corpus Christi, TX
kudos:6 Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by The Limit:Who are these "customers" and "interested parties"? I was never included in this survey, as were many students who live in my area. In fact, a large group of students that I know at the college protested against moving towards a UBB pricing scheme.
Extremely vague.
It was in eastern texas. Beaumont, texas to be more precise where they tried UBB. |
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etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
Dallas, TX
kudos:1 | reply to hobgoblin
said by hobgoblin:"Getting ready to go to bed."
Night
On a clearer mind, my original proposal is not that bad.
said by hobgoblin:I think you are missing the point. But OK, so if you use 80GB you get charged $80? 200GB $200, etc. You would like that?
Under my proposal if a subscriber use 5GB that's it $5 for that monthly period not the price of the speed tier minus the proposed $5 discount. If a subscriber use $30 GB that's it $30, if a subscriber use 3GB then he/she would pay $3 and yes if a subscriber use 250MB that would be $250... thank you! Basically what I propose is a flat bill based on usage not a combination of speed tiers and usage. If there are a lot of lite users then I'm sure TWC wouldn't like that!
Under TWC's usage based billing plan internet speed tiers become irrelevant, what advantage would 50Mbps have over 7Mbps and a 5GB CAP? Absolutely nothing! So paying $100 for the 50Mbps tier and getting a $5 discount for being such a nice subscriber doesn't make sense when the subscriber can pay $15? for lite and get the $5 discount. Like some cynics like to say 'you only hit the CAPS faster'
Under TWC's usage based billing plan (example above) wideband subscribers will be paying $95 and lite subs $10 for the same 5GB of data 'up to $25' for that month (read point 4 in link below). So basically the price of TWC's internet has gone up by $25 a month... of course not forgetting those random price hikes, but that is another story. I don't see this as something wrong or bad since TWC is a company and companies are here to make money.
To summarize my thoughts under TWC's usage based billing plan a wideband (30 or 50Mbps) subscriber would pay (depending on market) around $120 (inc tax) if he/she is a 'good' net citizen and use less than 5GB per month. He/she would pay from $125 to $150 if he/she consume from 5GB to 25GB (read point 4 in link below) beyond 25GB it is not stipulated (red flags... disconnection?).
According to TWC and this is were the devil is in the details a subscriber can switch from usage based billing to 'unlimited' and back at any time. This is ASSUMING that there will be an 'UNLIMITED' plan in the future. This is the thing that every TWC subscriber should be worried about since we all know what the word 'unlimited' mean to some companies especially unscrupulous companies like at&t.
To me $5 a month in savings for not using over 5GB is not worth much and I see it as a 'foot in the door' tactic. What worries me is that at some point in the future the 'unlimited' plan will not be there if enough subscribers (which I doubt) switch to usage based billing. TWC's plan is an 'opt-in' plan (read point 2 in link below) which means subscriber intervention is required (I hope) to get in. If in the future TWC decides to make it the default plan then there is another thing to worry about.
Reference link »www.twcableuntangled.com/2012/02···texas-2/ |
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 DrDrewSo that others may surf.
join:2009-01-28
SoCal
kudos:8
1 edit | said by etaadmin:Under TWC's usage based billing plan internet speed tiers become irrelevant, what advantage would 50Mbps have over 7Mbps and a 5GB CAP? Absolutely nothing! So paying $100 for the 50Mbps tier and getting a $5 discount for being such a nice subscriber doesn't make sense when the subscriber can pay $15? for lite and get the $5 discount. Like some cynics like to say 'you only hit the CAPS faster'
I believe that is why the discount and cap are ONLY available for the standard (10/1) and LOWER tiers because it doesn't make sense for the higher speed tiers.
said by TWCableUntangled post :1) Up to 5GB/month of data transmission for a $5/month discount from one’s current monthly bill. All Standard, Basic and Lite broadband customers will be eligible. Turbo, Extreme and Wideband customers will continue as always, with access to unlimited broadband and no optional tiered plan or discounts. This is for customers who don't use much and want to save a few more bucks.
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If it's important, back it up... twice. Even 99.999% availability isn't enough sometimes. |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
kudos:1 Reviews:
·VOIPo
·Verizon Wireless..
·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T U-Verse
·PHONE POWER
| reply to etaadmin
On the other side this could be a 'foot in the door' tactic and what prevents TWC from pulling an 'at&t unlimited wireless' later?
As implemented, this plan makes very little sense. TWC won't make any money from it. If someone gets two "warnings" they'll just switch back to the unlimited plan before TWC can earn penalties. I also don't know that many that would be willing to take on such a low cap for a savings of just $5.
It would make much more sense for TWC to apply non-optional caps to the low end packages to push heavy users to more expensive tiers.
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AT&T U-Hearse - RIP Unlimited Internet 1995-2011
Rethink Billable.
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trparkyApple... YUMPremium,MVM
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
kudos:2 | If they upped it to 15 GBs and took off $20 of the bill, I'm sure that people who just use the Internet for simple web browsing to get recipes and email would take to this. But this just sounds stupid. |
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etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
Dallas, TX
kudos:1 | reply to DrDrew
said by DrDrew:said by etaadmin:Under TWC's usage based billing plan internet speed tiers become irrelevant, what advantage would 50Mbps have over 7Mbps and a 5GB CAP? Absolutely nothing! So paying $100 for the 50Mbps tier and getting a $5 discount for being such a nice subscriber doesn't make sense when the subscriber can pay $15? for lite and get the $5 discount. Like some cynics like to say 'you only hit the CAPS faster'
I believe that is why the discount and cap are ONLY available for the standard (10/1) and LOWER tiers because it doesn't make sense for the higher speed tiers. said by Cable Untangled site :1) Up to 5GB/month of data transmission for a $5/month discount from one’s current monthly bill. All Standard, Basic and Lite broadband customers will be eligible. Turbo, Extreme and Wideband customers will continue as always, with access to unlimited broadband and no optional tiered plan or discounts. This is for customers who don't use much and want to save a few more bucks. I understand that... no problem but my concern is that eventually UBB will percolate to the higher tiers and worse it will no longer be 'optional'
What I stated are things that might happen like in BBR's main article »Time Warner Cable Returns to (Optional, For Now) Metered Billing
Will TWC pull a 'at&t unlimited wireless' on its subscribers? Will TWC 'alter the deal'? Will TWC make UBB mandatory? These are very important issues.
As for saving a few bucks... $5 for not going over 5GB is nothing. Today just buying a double whopper with bacon cost you around $7  |
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DampierPhillip M Dampier
join:2003-03-23
Rochester, NY | |
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DrDrewSo that others may surf.
join:2009-01-28
SoCal
kudos:8 | reply to etaadmin
For some $5 is $5 and something to be saved for other things or because they don't have it to begin with.
I'm sure many of the same people who'd go for this also own their own modem and subscribe to the lite or basic tiers. So add $5 to the few bucks they're saving on modem rental and a few more they're saving on the cheaper tiers.
As an OPTION, I don't see a problem with it. As for worrying if TWC will "alter the deal" later, they can already do that at any time now. This option doesn't change that, so I'll choose to worry about something else that is actually happening and maybe glance at other options just to see what's available from other providers anyway.
I and I'm sure many others would have ALOT more problems with your idea of a plan with $1 per GB usage...
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If it's important, back it up... twice. Even 99.999% availability isn't enough sometimes. |
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