The trade association for independent cable systems trumpeted their belief that broadband usage caps and metered pricing was inevitable, and pointed to Sunflower Broadband as a perfect example of how metering can work in a community.

Sunflower, a podunk provider in the Lawrence, Kansas area has been sticking it to their customers for the last four years with tiers as low as 1GB of usage with $2 a GB in overlimit fees thereafter.  For Patrick Knorr, who works for Sunflower and is also ex-officio chair of ACA, life is good.  But the people of Lawrence think otherwise.  They’ve recognized they are stuck in a broadband backwater with Sunflower sticking it to them with very high prices and not so great service, but for a lot of folks, it’s their only choice.  AT&T offers DSL service without caps, but many people in Lawrence are not close enough to get good speed.  When living in a backwater this bad, people try and innovate, and the Lawrence Freenet was the result.  It’s a non-profit organization offering wi-fi access without Sunflower’s caps within Lawrence.

For smaller cities across America, the lack of competition nearly always equals high pricing for limited quality service.  Sunflower illustrates that in action.  In rural areas, equity of access to broadband at affordable prices is becoming a national issue.  Perhaps regulation may be the best answer when providers get out of hand.

The take-away message from this 30 second report is the confirmation that “thousands” of customers protested the cap experiment program.  We had not heard any actual numbers about how many people were in contact with Time Warner about this ordeal, but now we do. It goes into our library.

Local progressive blogger Tom Belknap gets six minutes of airtime on WHAM-TV’s morning show to expand on, and educate viewers about some of the ancillary issues surrounding the Time Warner usage cap experiment.  Belknap, who runs DragonFlyEye, also gets a chance to debunk some of the misunderstandings some people have about the cap issue, and also deals with conservatives who reflexively objected to Senator Charles Schumer’s involvement in the Time Warner debacle.

Metered billing with overlimit fees bring new perils to consumers opening their monthly bills.  Right now, some of these examples impact wireless carriers, which have usage caps and fees for exceeding them.  Now imagine your Time Warner bill being opened one day and you discover your son has been running a torrent service for half the country or your daughter watched several seasons of her favorite TV show, in HD.  ABC News documented six horror stories.

Alberto used his new wireless card to download a movie to his laptop while in Mexico.  “I downloaded the movie and they billed me for $62,000.00,” he said. After contesting the charge, the carrier reduced the fee — to a still painful $17,000.

Streaming live sporting events, excessive text messaging and exceeding monthly data allowances have left others with massive headaches and multi-thousand dollar bills.

Paul Eng, Web Editor for Consumers Union has advice for wireless account users that also falls neatly into place when contemplating a Time Warner usage cap:

Most of all, he said, if you’re not sure how much a certain activity will cost, it’s better to just say no to yourself.

“Resist temptation,” he said. “If you just have no clue, better safe than sorry.”

That’s right.  When in doubt, don’t even think about using it.

A Chicago Bear’s fan to the core, Wayne Burdick of Schaumburg, Ill., had to cheer on his team — even while on a Caribbean cruise.

So using his laptop, a wireless card and Slingbox device that let him watch the game via an Internet connection, he tuned into watch the Bears battle the Detroit Lions.

But after a nice relaxing vacation, he returned home to a $27,000 bill from AT&T.

In 2007, a 22-year-old Canadian oil-field worker faced an astronomical $83,700 (C$85,000) cell phone bill, according to Reuters.

According to Staniaszek’s father, who shares his name, the man thought he could use his phone as a modem for his computer. Thinking his unlimited browser plan with Bell Mobility (a division of Bell Canada) could handle it, he downloaded movies and other high-resolution files.

A Netbook with a wireless plan that hides the cap in the fine print. Result? $5000 Bill

Finally, there was the Oklahoma woman who grabbed one of those $99 Radio Shack netbook specials, with a two year contract for AT&T Wireless broadband.  AT&T is famous for pitching “unlimited” broadband access, but then caps it in the tiny fine print at 5GB per month, reserving the right to overcharge.  They did, to the tune of $5000 for one month.  She’s suing.

“The company still plans to bill by usage once people understand the concept.” As I explained to readers before, some of the most telling statements about the future of this entire debacle have come from the Triad division of Time Warner from North Carolina.  Company officials seem to be a little more forward about what is going on down there than in many of the other impacted divisions where we hear far more vague statements.

This is a quick report, but if you compare and contrast it with the News 14 Carolina reports, it’s easy to see the difference.  One report tells viewers customers weren’t happy with the experiment, the other did not.  One report has an anchor that steps back and reports the company position, the other is closer to a “team play” to press the company point of view.  And viewers absolutely picked up actual news from this report, instead of a recitation of talking points and press releases.

Frontier Communications, the telephone and broadband provider in Rochester, New York, is now positioned for consolidation, according to StreetInsider.com, a financial news and investor information site.

Frontier has completed several mergers and acquisitions in the past year, as part of the ongoing consolidation in the telecommunications provider sector.  Frontier’s value as a takeover target has been increasing, as the company reduces its debt and has received stable ratings from independent rating companies.  A Piper Jaffrey analyst said the company remained open to both buying and selling assets.

The background buzz continues to focus on some sort of deal between Windstream Corporation and Frontier.  Analysts spoke last year of Frontier being the likely target of Windstream for a buyout, but the economy then took a nosedive.

Windstream is another independent telephone company comprised of the old Alltel telephone company and ValorTelecom.

That the financial press has taken a renewed interest in both stocks may signal a play in the coming weeks or months.

The anger over Time Warner’s rationing plan for the Internet was so persistent, Rochester TV newscasts began running out of adjectives to describe the seething customers here felt about the whole thing.  It had been a top story for day after day in this area.  Calling it “a plan that has been slammed from nearly every corner,” WROC covered the press conference that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) held April 16th announcing the cap program was suspended.

“The final nail came from Chuck Schumer.”  “Time Warner’s plan was … nothing short of a PR disaster.”  “Time Warner was taking advantage of a near monopoly.”  “It seems they could try it again, though.”  All statements from WROC reporter Evan Axelbank.

Customers get it.  StoptheCap! readers get it.  Our elected officials get it.  Time Warner’s competitors get it.  The media get it.  The cat next door gets it.  The only ones who still don’t get it appear to be Time Warner executives in New York and a few of their friends in the industry or trade press who get paid not to get it.

North Carolina residents get pro-industry "push poll" calls.

Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids.  A certain company or group of companies is apparently spending some of the money that could be spent on better things (DOCSIS upgrades?) to run a disingenuous “push polling” scam on the residents of Wilson, North Carolina.  A “push poll” incorporates propaganda or misinformation in an attempt to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll.  People receiving calls are given misleading suppositions and then polled on how they feel about them.

Our friends at Save NC Broadband report calls going out that include questions that cannot possibly be answered without siding with commercial providers.  I can only guess a few samples:

“Do you believe that your hard earned tax dollars should be used to pay for a socialist broadband Internet scheme that is designed to kill jobs in your community and destroy a tax-paying, capitalist company?”  Answer “yes if you hate America” or “no if you are not a traitor to the American dream.”

“If you knew that a local town or city was run by anti-American forces in league with communists that wanted to use government funding to control your Internet connection, would you be in favor of this government controlled network that might spy on you or are you opposed?”  Answer “in favor of a Communist takeover” or “as an upstanding American, I would have to be opposed.”

You get the idea, even if I over sprinkled some hyperbole on top for added flavor.  Alright, I poured it on….

If you live in Wilson or Salibury, you may be getting a call.  Tell the pollster you realize they’re working for big cable and telco interests and hang up the phone.

Later this week, the folks in league with the push polling firm hired to pull this scam will no doubt use some of the results in their effort to convince North Carolina legislators that there is no need for municipal broadband.

Don’t be a sucker for big cable and telco broadband that is terrified of competition.  Keep on your elected officials and tell them to oppose HB 1252, and make sure you call or write today because the bill comes before the Public Utilities Committee on Wednesday.

Also this week, we’re hearing from our readers who are starting to get replies from their elected officials.  StoptheCap! reader Shawn shares a particularly arrogant reply he got from Big Cable’s BFF, Rep. Ty Harrell, who helped introduce this horror show:

Thanks for your email. I appreciate hearing from you. I am to assume that you have read the bill, correct? Based on that assumption, you do realize that Wilson, and all of the other municipalities that have been reported on, have been exempted from the bill, correct?

Further still, you do realize that the bill does NOT prohibit any municipality from offering broadband services or any kind, correct?

Again, thank you for your email.

Warmest wishes,

Ty Rep. Ty Harrell NC State House, District 41 16 W. Jones Street Room 2121 Raleigh, NC 27601-1096 919.733.5602 tyh@ncleg.net

Here is my suggested reply:

Thanks for your reply to my recent letter asking you to reconsider support for HB 1252.  I appreciated hearing from you, too.  I am to assume that you have fully contemplated the impact of your proposed bill, correct?  Based on that assumption, you do realize that I have a lot of questions about how much you and your staff know when I learned that a Time Warner staff member and an attorney who represents the industry had to answer questions on your behalf posed in last week’s session in the Science & Technology Committee, correct?

Further still, you do realize that this pro-industry legislation, while not outright banning municipal broadband, turns the mechanics of building and running one into an Olympic event of Herculean proportions, which basically amounts to the same result — prohibiting them, correct?

And lastly, you do realize that if you should see fit to continue pushing this anti-consumer legislation, there is absolutely no chance whatsoever that you will have my vote, or those of my friends who agree with me, come the next election.

I urge you to reconsider your position on this important legislation and perhaps shelve or withdraw it until its fullest implications can be explored and weighed.

Again, thank you for your reply.

Warmest wishes,

An actual consumer who is unlikely to get a check from a telecom lobbyist in the near future.

(Leave off that last line and replace it with your own signature, of course.)

Get Busy North Carolina!

A sample letter is available to use as the basis for your own personal e-mail or call.  You can use this resource to find your own representative/senator by clicking on House/Senate from the menu bar at the top. Here is the e-mail contact list for North Carolina representatives:

Lorene.Coates@ncleg.net, Harold.Brubaker@ncleg.net, Nelson.Cole@ncleg.net, Bill.Faison@ncleg.net, Russell.Tucker@ncleg.net, Kelly.Alexander@ncleg.net, Hugh.Blackwell@ncleg.net, Angela.Bryant@ncleg.net, Becky.Carney@ncleg.net, Beverly.Earle@ncleg.net, Bruce.Goforth@ncleg.net, Robert.Grady@ncleg.net, Jim.Gulley@ncleg.net, Pricey.Harrison@ncleg.net, Hugh.Holliman@ncleg.net, Julia.Howard@ncleg.net, Linda.Johnson2@ncleg.net, Marvin.Lucas@ncleg.net, Danny.McComas@ncleg.net, Tim.Moore@ncleg.net, Wil.Neumann@ncleg.net, Ty.Harrell@ncleg.net, Earl.Jones@ncleg.net, Marilyn.Avila@ncleg.net, Thom.Tillis@ncleg.net

Challenge: How do you, the second largest cable company in the nation convince people you cannot afford to complete needed upgrades of your network without rationing usage and massive rate increases, while the fifth largest cable company just pulled it off with no drama and has announced the nation’s fastest residential broadband service, at fire sale pricing with no caps or limits on usage, starting May 11th.  Cablevision even doubled the speeds of their free wi-fi, offered as a public service to their broadband customers at no additional cost in many public locations, to three megabits per second.

Time Warner wants to ask customers to pay $150 a month for 15Mbps service while Cablevision rolls out Optimum Online Ultra, priced at $99.95 per month for both consumers and business customers, offering 101Mbps service.  You read that right.  One hundred one megabits per second service.  Cablevision has no caps or limits on its customers — doesn’t need them, never wants them.  Cablevision’s new broadband package even blows away Verizon Communications FiOS highest tier, which offers 50Mbps priced at $139.95 a month.

How can Cablevision pull this off while Time Warner has a hissy fit and yanks back their own vaguely-promised upgrades because customers rightfully said no to a 300% rate increase?

Integrity, honesty, real commitment to the communities they serve, and a recognition that a credit-card-like-pricing model at a time when the economy is hurting is about as low as you can go, all might have something to do with it.

Cablevision didn’t whine when it saw broadband growth.  It simply reached inside the broadband division’s profits, and made an investment in the future needs of their customers.  They completed upgrades to DOCSIS 3.0 without a lot of fanfare, without the need to impose rationing plans and without any caps dumped on everyone from the lightest to heaviest users.  In other words, they chose treating their customers with respect instead of considering them crooks, bandwidth hogs, and freeloaders that needed to pay more… much more, for the exact same thing.  That “other company” saw the same growth in Internet usage and felt their best option was to cut investment by 11% last year.

“Optimum Online Ultra firmly solidifies Optimum as the fastest Internet service in the home, at work and through the air over Optimum Wi-Fi,” Cablevision chief operating officer Tom Rutledge said in a statement. “This is a perfect complement to our existing high-speed data products, which are fast, reliable and far superior to anything available from our competitors.”

You bet it is.  Standard service customers who receive 15Mbps/2Mbps service will also reap the benefits of less congested bandwidth pipelines, made possible by the technology upgrade.  For Cablevision, it means reaping the rewards of an easier-to-manage-network, happier customers, new profit-making possibilities afforded by higher speed premium tiers, and an assurance they will retain their 75% market share for broadband services in their service areas.

That “other provider” continues to stomp its feet and decide the real problem isn’t their rape and pillage pricing plans, but the fact customers weren’t “smart” enough to see the genius of turning you upside down and shaking you for every dollar that happens to fall out of your pocket in the process.  You cannot Re-Educate an informed and empowered consumer that can see right through the PR campaign:  not yesterday when you shelved it, not today while you ponder how to market it, and not tomorrow when you bring back the same rejected plans with a new coat of paint.

Finally.  We were beginning to wonder if anyone was conscious to what Time Warner was doing to customers down in Beaumont.  No wonder Time Warner found “success” with the program.  Of all of the cities Time Warner proposed testing this rationing plan, Beaumont has always been the quietest and least likely to make noise about it.  But residents have started to change their tune once they realized other Time Warner “experiment” cities managed to successfully get the cap plan dropped, at least for now.  So why are they still stuck with it?

Check out Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) being interviewed and using the slam-it-home point that Time Warner is already making a ton of money on broadband priced just the way it is right now.

A pretty powerful piece.  Time Warner comes across as exceptionally arrogant in Beaumont.  They would not provide anyone to talk on-air, and their written statement, while acknowledging the program was driven back in other cities, is working just fine for them in Beaumont, whether customers like it or not.  Pretty chilling and smacks of arrogance.  Of course, in Beaumont, AT&T is experimenting with caps of their own, so the point that customers have no uncapped alternative is particularly powerful in this part of Texas.