SubscribeTime Warner Alex, bless his heart. He’s back with another revelation for all of the cities that successfully drove back the usage caps, at least for now. Since we’re unwilling to play in his metered sandbox, he’s taking all of the toys home with him. It seems that because Rochester, Austin, San Antonio, and the Triad said “no thanks” to Time Warner’s Tiers, the company may be rethinking deploying DOCSIS 3 upgrades in these markets.
“It was scheduled as part of consumption based billing trial, but we all know how you feel about that,” he Tweeted. It’s good to know that he knows.
Evidently, unless customers are willing to be force-fed paltry and overpriced tiers, Time Warner doesn’t see the point in keeping up with the rest of the country’s cable broadband providers who are upgrading systems to DOCSIS 3.
No matter that the upgrades will likely help Time Warner as much as its customers. Given the choice between mega-fast tiers that blow through usage caps in a matter of hours vs. unlimited access at speeds that are perfectly fine for the majority of broadband applications, customers have overwhelmingly made their choice – we’ll take what we have now.
Nobody objects if Time Warner wants to rake in more cash by deploying their upgrades and selling access to premium speed tiers at higher prices, as long as those tiers are unlimited, and existing plans are left alone for those happy enough with what they receive today. If Time Warner wants to miss that opportunity, that’s their business. Protecting rationally priced Internet access is ours.
He also twittered “@netpro2k It doesn’t…just that the rollout was scheduled with the trial and now all of it is on hold.” http://twitter.com/AlexTWC/status/1580886051 in response to “@AlexTWC Why does DC3 require usage tiering? Why not tier based on speed, ala FIOS? I think people are willing to pay a premium for speed.”
It seems patently obvious that unless you said Yes to usage based pricing, there are no upgrades in your future. Why bother when lack of competition already makes it a safe bet most of your customers aren’t going anywhere, hence the experiment in “safe” places.
Exactly, like the previous video from the Triad stated, that TWC pretty much already has a monopoly and the consumer has no options, so that is why these areas were targetted. So the residential sutomers could shunt the burden of cost for tWC to upgrade the systems, while the business class customers will just get to ride the free meal ticker from those that already have not only ISP through TWC, but also TV (which thanks to DTV more people will more than likely have to get), and also the TWC digital phone service to have less bills coming from… Read more »
Why are people even worried about a home phone? Almost every cell provider has UNLIMITED calling for very little.
If the cost of upgrading is the problem, then pass the cost for upgrading on to me. What does it cost? $50 for a new modem, $100 for their end? Pass the real costs on to me directly! Don’t give me this BS that it is our fault because we won’t their outrageous gouging.
In a way, it is better to not have super fast speeds? What the hell would I do with a 12/2 connection after the third day of the month? Nothing like blowing my 40gig limit in a few days.
It feels like every time this guy opens his mouth, I want to forcibly cram HIS foot into HIS mouth. The more TW talks with their customers, the more disdain everyone has for them. We get this “that is not what we meant” from everyone else in the company when we quote the TW goons. If these are their spokes people, maybe they should quit tweeting and blogging and get off their asses and produce some official news. They keep quoting surveys and studies, but never once provide the raw data to back anything up. I hope comments like his… Read more »
AlexTWC: Waa waa waa waa waah waah waah waah
Meanwhile…. “Upgraded DOCSIS 3.0 Comcast markets see the company’s $42.95 “Performance” 6Mbps/1Mbps tier become 12Mbps/2Mbps, while their $52.95 “Performance Plus” 8Mbps/2Mbps tier becomes 16Mbps/2Mbps. Upgraded markets also see two new tiers: $62.95 “Ultra” 22Mbps/5Mbps and $139.95 “Extreme 50” 50Mbps/10Mbps. While many cable carriers have taken a “wait and see” approach to DOCSIS 3.0, Comcast has been very aggressive with the upgrades. According to the carrier, 65% of their customers will be upgraded to the faster speeds by the end of the year, and 100% of their customers will be upgraded to the speedier technology by the end of 2010.” http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Expands-DOCSIS-30-In-Bay-Area-102029… Read more »
They also, to my understanding, don’t charge overage fees or instantly stop your service, they just ask you to consume less or face the possibility of eventually being cut off.
It’s unbelievable how petty these TW jerks are. It really is, “since we aren’t going to play my way, I’m taking my toys and going home!” Its just ponderous.
How does Alex Dudley even have a job? He’s the most inept PR person I’ve ever had to bear witness to. I hope he keeps rimming those corporate butts, because I don’t think anyone else will ever be too privy to hire him. What a chode.
Personally, I hope he kills himself like the guy from Freddie Mac.
He looks like he just graduated college. It’s no wonder he and the TWC ilk are so inept/incompetent. They can’t even price-gouge correctly. If I were a TWC shareholder I would be paniking. A lot. Just think… if these people can’t put on a good horse and pony show right… what else are the screwing up at the company?
I do not understand very much about DOCSIS 3 other then it is very fast and some people here have said it actually helps the isp’s loads. I really do not know so I should read up on the subject. The above poster says the 50/10 connection is $140 for comcast im sure TWC will want $100+ a month as well. I do not know what kind of jobs people have to pay those prices I know its way over the top for me. Even at $40 a month it can sometimes be a strugle and what little I do… Read more »
The only ones they will punish with this will be themselves. Ultimately the market will have a new provider at some point. Someone is going to see the dis-contentedness of the local market and see a real opportunity to make money. That will ruin TWC in Rochester.
Would you like some “whine” with that “cheese” Alex? Anyways, I wouldn’t worry about this guy saying that they are putting off the upgrades. They will have to do it sooner or later to keep up with the competition. Another thing, they act like they are losing money but their 2008 financial records indicate otherwise with like a %14 increase in profit coupled with a %12 decrease in costs. Last thing I would like to add, is TW has already raised its rates and continues to do so several times a year it seems. If they keep raising their rates,… Read more »
They can take their DOCSIS 3 and stick it as far as I’m concerned, if having that means having caps that are way too small and overpriced I can do without it. What’s the sense of having these speeds if we are capped?
These people at TW really need to grow up and get a clue.
I really think they want us to pay for the ‘upgrades’ they did/ are doing in order to provide MPLS to compete with Level 3. The place I work for just dropped 67, yes 67 Level 3 direct T3s and T1s to all the offices in favor of the cheaper TWC MPLS. I’m sure in this case TWC was all for competition. F’ing bastards… I don’t want DOCSIS 3 anyway.. not with a damn cap….
T.M. I think Verizon is just sitting back watching just how the story unfolds. After all we are New York’s third largest city and in reality a very compact population. They will come here at some point but with caps from TWC they will speed up the process. There is so much an anti competition environment in the area it reeks of many laws and rules that are being broken and many in Washington takes a very dim view of that. You know the drill without competition think what prices would be for anything. BTW how do you like my… Read more »
Check this out – very interesting story:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=14934
nice find, Ron. Wish the Rochester gov’t could put together something like that. Anyone else find Alex latest triade doesn’t make sense? Rochester didn’t want caps, so we’re being punished by not introducing D3 here. Firstly, show me proof that there were ever plans to lay that here once the caps were in place. It was probably hot air to justify the caps. Secondly, if it D3 requires higher rates to cover the install cost, why is TWC bringing it to TX, where there are no caps? I highly doubt that TWC would be installing it for their abused Beaumont… Read more »
I read somewhere that DOCSIS 3.0 was coming, BUT it wasn’t going to be for some years, yet…I just can’t remember where I read it. I’ve read so much stuff about TWC & caps in the past few weeks, my head’s spinning trying to keep it all straight. So, for AlexTWC to sit there and play this pouting card is ridiculous. It wasn’t going to happen.
I really wish other cities would do this. It is eye opening to see what this service can do and what the cable and telephone companies have been bypassing for years.
Are you kidding? They wanted to deploy DOCSIS 3 for free (free to them that is). How could they do that? Let’s put such paltry caps in place that we will generate enough for the upgrade and quite a nice bonus for ourselves…. Our costs are down and revenue is up but lets not invest in our own infrastructure, lets have our customers foot the bill on top of what they already pay now. Let’s face it, in this type of business you better be allocating some of those massive profits to upgrades. The customers aren’t going to pay extra… Read more »
@ron Dafoe OMG, that article sucks not for what the article is about but for the reason that a little “podunk” town in NC can offer “better” internet service, ie 10Mb down and up, than a big city in NC, like Charlotte. I would love to have a 10Mb upload speed. God that would be sweet. It opens up so many possibilities for the user. TW, here in Charlotte, offer 10Mb down but 512Kb up which is pathetic upstream speed. AT&T, with Uverse, offers 18Mb down but 1.5Mb up which is better but not by much. I would drop the… Read more »
There is a better article about the the Greenlight service here:
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:259848
I’ve been saying Rochester needs something like this for a week now. The cost difference (speed not considered) is incredible.
I think I have part of this figured out. They want stimulus money. Remember that giant pile of federal money that is being doled out? They can now go to the fed and say ‘see we cant change our prices our customers do not like it. Its going to cost big bucks to upgrade our network give us free money’. THAT is what they are doing. That was why the caps were so stingy. They WANTED us to be outraged. Or maybe they are just that incompetent? If I was a shareholder I would be asking some very tough questions… Read more »
I don’t know. I have my doubts. It’s not like they’re going convince anyone they can’t afford it or that they deserve help on this when other companies are doing it on their own.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing that stimulus money could go to however. Not to TW specifically, but as an incentive for all the companies to build more, build better and build faster. Could make jobs.
As far fetched as that conspiracy might be, there is NOTHING wrong with investing in infrastructure. There was a time in history the US led the way, now we’re just a sad state of affairs broadband wise.
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20080423/
They can keep DOCSIS 3, its useless with a cap anyway.
Gee, with DOCSIS 3 and a 1 GB cap I could be paying overage fees in a matter seconds!!! WHOOPEE! How can you not just LOVE TWC!
ROFLMAO!!!! They will NEVER get a dime from me with CAPS…otherwise they collect almost $2K/year for everything I but from them. GFY (good for you) TWC!!!!
So let me get this straight, Alex Dudley essentially admitted that the tiered plan will cost customers more. Unless we pay more we are not getting DOCSIS? I thought tiered plans were going to save people money? Alex you are a joke, this community will not stand for the garbage you spew.
At this point I am satisfied with the service I have. If this is the game you are going to play, at least I can live with it.
Im using comcasts docsis 3 modem paying 75 per month, when I first got it 6 months ago it was because of advertised speeds of 40Mbit down 20 Mbit up, now I see they lowered the upstream, but it is still usable, I have never ben told of any upload download caps and have used 2 or 3 TB both directions in a month and so far havn’t seen any warning emails from them..