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Road Runner Service Post-Cap 'n Tier in the Golden Triangle, Texas
Time Warner Cable has quietly ended its “experiment” of their “consumption based billing” scheme in the first city to test it, and the last to be rid of it — Beaumont, Texas.
Time Warner Cable’s website for the Golden Triangle division, serving Beaumont, dispensed with the tier selection menu which limited customers to 40GB of usage per month, and has returned to an unlimited service plan offering 5Mbps/384Kbps service for $44.99 per month.
Customers calling Time Warner’s office in Beaumont were told the consumption based billing experiment had ended. However, as with other Time Warner Cable divisions, the “FAQ” on the topic has now also appeared on the help pages for this division as well. It explains Time Warner Cable still believes their Cap ‘n Tier formula is the “fairest” and will reimpose limits “once customers gauge how much bandwidth they actually consume.” Time Warner Cable has gotten bolder in sending the message the very unpopular billing system they attempted to test in several cities around the country will be back, whether customers like it or not.
But for now, the grand experiment has finally ended nationwide.
I noticed the speeds are slower now. Before I canceled, I was getting 7mbps down and 500kbps up on the 44 dollar a month plan.
I wonder what this means exactly. TWC has made it crystal clear they intend to go forward with caps as soon as they can, but why backpedal? Were they afraid of others holding up Beaumont as an example of how this policy hurts a community? It seems if they were, they would have done this before now. About the only reason I can see for TWC to drop the cap in Beaumont would be if they expected the ongoing use of capped broadband there to represent some sort of threat to their future plans. Or to use a warfare analogy,… Read more »
I think you hit the nail on the head. TWC has seen that it’s not just the people directly being affected complaining. We’re all banding together to help eachother in ALL markets to fight this, and I don’t think they want us all to now unite our focus on Beaumont. That would just deepen the PR wound. Instead they’re going to stop all trails, attempt and education campaign, and try again…..maybe with a more synchronized rollout.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they thought a nationwide rollout, or a bigger one at least, would hamper out ability to organize since it would slightly dilute the pool of angered users–many of whom are presently not in one of the “trial” areas. I think however it would expand the pool quite enough to make up for that, and instead of a handful of politicians fighting TWC on their constituents’ behalf there would soon be hundreds. They’re probably tightening up their ranks in either event. I think as much as there are a lot of execs at TWC who obviously… Read more »
Okay, suppose TWC does a nationwide rollout of a revised consumption based billing. How are we to react? Of course, we will be consumers enraged with anger and will vent on blogs like this, call TWC to complain, and a few of us will cancel service immediately. Others will run up overages and call to complain. Just as wireless carriers do now, they will reduce the bill a symbolic amount and warn the consumer not to do it again, and better yet, inform them that they can upgrade their account (and up their monthly bill) to prevent overages. Unfortunately, none… Read more »
Even without this metered internet nonsense, their reputation here in the Beaumont area wasn’t very high. They attempted to have our local ABC channel taken off and then got angry when the local news station let their viewers know what was going on. They did take off the TV Guide channel, and when called and asked about it, they said we could get it back for an extra 4 dollars a month. I know quite a few people who’ve switched to Direct TV. I’m sure them ending the trial everywhere is just a way to shut everybody up and hope… Read more »
The local station removal issue comes from the fact broadcasters have started asking for cash payments from cable systems to carry their signals. Some stations have been rebuffed by TWC for asking too much, and then the hardball game begins to see who caves first. The same thing happened in Buffalo with the CBS affiliate WIVB, which also has the number one newscast in the market. TWC yanked the channel off the system.
The trial is not over just yet.
I went to Time Warner today and asked the lady at the front desk about getting RR back. She said the trial was gonna end but didn’t know when.
If you look at their web page for Road Runner in the Golden Triangle, the usage cap nonsense is gone and has been gone for awhile. When you requested information, did she make you choose a specific usage plan based on gigabytes consumed? When we called RR in Beaumont, they told us there was no further usage based testing going on. CSRs may not be fully clued in on this.
Keep me informed if you get different specific information.