SubscribeThere is snow outside. Not enough to shovel, but still… how much more of this do we have to take?
In more bad news, you’ll find an article here from this morning suggesting that Earthlink is also going to be capped. How do we know? Because Time Warner’s corporate public affairs guy tells us so! So much for that Federal Trade Commission settlement back in 2000 that opened Time Warner’s network to competitors. Earthlink still has not called or written us back to give their side, even though we’ve left a bunch of messages at their corporate headquarters. It’s nice to know that Time Warner evidently gets to decide on Earthlink’s business plans. We’re going to have to wait awhile longer on this to find out exactly what is true here.
By popular request, the Alternative Providers list is now linked at the top of the page. At the moment, it’s a reprint of the article from last week on alternatives for Rochester area residents. I am still working on the other cities so hang in there.
Customers "want this": Broadband Reports covers Time Warner's propaganda campaign
Karl Bode at Broadband Reports has another great article up quoting from Time Warner Cable COO Landel Hobbs who came out the other day to praise the revolutionary thinking of Time Warner’s new ration-your-Internet plan. It’s part of the grand propaganda effort underway at Time Warner to convince serfs customers that this is exactly the change they were hoping for. Because when I think of people who are in touch with my needs and are just like me and my neighbors, I think of executives in the upper floors at Time Warner headquarters. Yeah.
Beware cable companies bearing gifts. How lucky we all are to benefit from this amazing plan!
There’s another great article this afternoon on the grand myth Time Warner’s corporate types are selling that people are clamoring to have their Internet accounts rationed away written by Karl Bode over at Broadband Reports. Check it out.
We have our first contributing writer here this morning as well. A lot of you are asking me what more you can do to help. We need a lot of things. Writers to help post articles here, people who like to share news tidbits they’ve uncovered, and lots of data gatherers. I need to prioritize the fight back section work, and it’s slow going for me, especially for the other cities. If you want to help collect data on alternative providers and what their pricing, packages, and contact information is, that would be very useful, especially if you have experience using their services and can share insight on what people can expect.
Another area is figuring out who the movers and shakers are in other cities on this issue so we make sure we are linking to them and publishing their information.
If you are so talented, we could also use people to capture video clips from any future news coverage on this issue, and then upload them to Dailymotion or YouTube so we can embed them here. In fact, any video or other multimedia on this question containing original or new information is very welcomed.
If you are artistic or creative, we could use your help in creating things like protest banner ads, editorial cartoons, and I even have some ideas for some video web ads which could potentially get some free exposure in the media, but although I have that radio voice thing going, I’m inept in the artistic talent and video software department.
Basically, anything you think is missing here, want to have here, and especially that you can help make possible here I want to know about.
Please consider registering for an account and using the contact form to request more information about writing articles here and join the team! It’s very easy to do, because I managed to figure it out. If I can, you can too.
Lunch time… I wonder if anything else is happening in the world; I’ve lost touch since April 1st for some reason.
Other stories of interest:
Hey Phil… what about bumper stickers/magnets?
Also, doesn’t Time Warner have booths at local festivals, generally (think Lilac Festival)?
Yes, someone had mentioned stickers and magnets and I want to pursue it. We need some graphic artists to help.
I’ll see what I can do to help with graphics…
Read the statement from TWC’s COO yesterday regarding ‘steak and salad’ I burst out laughing. The guy really doesn’t quite understand, does he?
In response to his statement about steak and salad.
“It’s like being told you are going to get a fat juicy steak. It will be the best steak you have ever eaten. It’s gonna cost you 29.95. When they finaly bring out the steak, it’s 1 tiny piece on a fork. They leave the remaining 26oz on table. If you eat the rest of the steak, they are gonna charge you $1 per each additional gram.”
The lilac festival is not far away. TW always has a booth set up. Be a nice place to see a few demonstrators peacefully picketing and educating passers by with short, to the point informational flyers.
I’d like to see an anti-TWC billboard up on Mt. Hope by their customer service office…but I fear I haven’t the pocket change for such an adventure.
Time Warner is using language like “bandwidth hogs”, heavy users, bit-torrent users (which gets regurgitated by most newspapers) in an effort to create an internet class warfare. In this way, those who consider themselves to be light or casual users believe that Time Warner is giving them a break and only increasing costs for heavy users.
We need to educate those casual users so that they realize this is bad for everybody.