I need some help in putting together a list of all of the town and village supervisors in Monroe County, including phone numbers and e-mail addresses (or at least web sites where you can use a form to contact them). This needs to be done urgently no later than late tonight. Please help out by posting the information you can collect in the comments section. If a group of you wants to get together and divide up the towns, that’s great. It will save me a lot of time in doing this myself tonight. I will explain why shortly.

"This is not a rate increase."

When you say something on those series of tubes we call the Internet, sometimes it’s awfully hard to get those statements back, thanks to the magic of Google caching.  Carrie, one of our great readers from Texas, clued us in on a tweet from Omar Gallaga at the Austin American Statesman, who noted a copy of a Google cached Time Warner corporate website page that said more than was perhaps intended.

It appears one section was cut out in the final release, but with the miracle of Google caching, it all comes back to life.  More and more, this reminds me of the bizarro world thinking Frontier was doing last summer, until they got smart.  Maybe it’s something going around.

Answers to Your Questions

Will my bill go up?

This is not a rate increase. Rather, it gives each level of Road Runner service a generous amount to use each month but, if of someone goes over the monthly usage allocation, they have to pay a slight fee. That’s the only way your bill would change.

How will this impact my Price Lock Guarantee?

The plan will not impact your Price Lock Guarantee price, but it could mean a small incremental fee that will vary by month depending on how much you exceed the megabit usage that goes with your level of Road Runner service.

How can I know if the plan is fair?

Time Warner Cable simply wants to make sure only those who use large amounts of data either upgrade to a level better for them or pay for incremental amounts they choose to have each month. This ensures others don’t have to pay for or subsidize those heavier users.

Why do I have to pay more for Road Runner?

You won’t be paying more if you are like the average user. These new fees will only be charged to the small group of heavy users that the rest of RR customers are effectively subsidizing.

Well, well, well.  I can see why the language was pulled here.  It’s utter fiction. “A slight fee” amounts up to $75 in overages each month, the bandwidth they are providing is generous if you were accessing the Internet from Zimbabwe, and from Time Warner’s own statements to the SEC, nobody is subsidizing anything – profits are up in the broadband division, as bandwidth costs decline.

But the most important part of this is the bit about throwing Price Lock Guarantee customers under the bus. Price lock contracts are available in some markets, mostly in Texas.  They are not part of service in Rochester. A “small incremental fee?”  Like the “slight fee” of up to $75 a month in overages?  Because these statements are no longer part of the “official release,” we’re not about to say this is what is coming, but it does shine light on the kind of thinking that seems to be at work here.  Doesn’t a Price Lock Guarantee mean… you know, a guaranteed price lock — your rate stays the same.   Why anyone would even draft something saying otherwise is beyond me.

The smartest thing Time Warner could do is pull this entire disaster altogether, and get back in the business of providing affordable Internet access to customers without gotchas, caps, and overage fees.

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), took additional steps to educate and inform his supporters this morning in an e-mail message designed to bring additional attention to the Time Warner usage capping issue, and to encourage people to stay aware of ongoing developments.

Rep. Massa has taken a lead on this issue, in response to large numbers of complaints from constituents in his western New York district who would be seriously affected by Time Warner’s usage caps and price hikes.  Many within his district live in rural areas outside of metropolitan Rochester, and do not have access to DSL or wi-fi alternatives, leaving Time Warner broadband with de facto monopoly status.  The congressman expressed dissatisfaction with the “concessions” offered by Time Warner last week in response to customer complaints, noting that customers who wish to retain their current level of broadband service are being asked to pay three times more for the same product.

Hello,

First off, I want to reassure you that this is not a fundraising email.  Instead I want to take a minute to update you on the issues surrounding my opposition to Time Warner Cable’s new plan to restructure how they charge internet customers.  Their new fee structure would be based on how much customers download from the internet, and would result in huge fee increases for many local customers.   Time Warner is rolling this new plan out in several test markets around the country, including right here in the 29th Congressional District, where they have a near-monopoly on internet access.

I stand firmly opposed to this unfair and disproportionate fee increase, and will be moving swiftly to enact legislation designed prevent this ill-conceived plan.  The Massa Broadband Fairness act will prohibit this unfair tiered price structure from internet providers.  At a time when information is vitally important to our global economy, Time Warner Cable wants to charge more for access to information on the internet.  This is a guaranteed mechanism to kill jobs and stifle the economic recovery that we so desperately need.  While I believe in a business’s right to maximize their profit potential, I believe that safeguards need to be put in place when a business has a monopoly on a specific region.  I will fight these unnecessary burdens being place on my constituents, and work to keep access to information available to all.  I believe that this will help create a more vibrant and diverse business community, and will ensure that our schools and colleges continue to lead the nation.

Thank you for all that you do.

Warmest Regards,

Eric Massa

Eric Massa
Commander US Navy (ret.)

Those interested in contacting Congressman Massa’s office to thank him for his efforts are encouraged to call one of the district offices:

Washington DC Office
1208 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3161
Fax: (202) 226-6599

Corning District Office
89 W. Market Street
Corning, NY 14830
Phone: (607) 654-7566
Fax: (607) 654-7568

Olean Office
317 North Union Street
Olean, NY 14760
Phone: (716) 372-2090
Fax: (716) 372-2869

Pittsford District Office
1 Grove St
Suite 101
Pittsford, NY 14534
Phone: (585) 218-0040
Fax: (585) 218-0053

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend.  I am still working my way through all of the e-mail and will have managed to finish replying to everything up until April 10th tonight.  I have several short updates:

If you’re a participant on DailyKos, please take some time and help our reader Z get the message out, and answer back a few of the folks involved in Z’s diary who are drinking the industry Kool-Aid about usage caps and metered access.  While a lot of folks seem to get it, there are several over there who are in need of an education on this issue.  Feel free to provide one and also give a recommendation to Z’s diary while you’re at it.  It’s patently clear this issue is not one on the right or the left.  It crosses political boundaries.

Reader James has made several banners attacking usage caps and promoting this site, if you care to use them on your own web pages.  Anyone doing banners on this issue can use the Contact link at the top to let us know and we’ll spread the word.

Meter This! Just one of several protest sites popping up in Austin

Meter This! is one of several efforts in the Austin area working closely with us to spread the word.  I want to reiterate how important it is for anyone setting up a protest site to consider bringing some of your news and action alerts to us as well, as a contributing author here.  It is essential to try and make sure all campaigns to protest caps coordinate with each other for maximum impact.  My preference is to provide you with access so you can submit ready-to-publish content here.  That will guarantee it gets online fast, and helps give me a break from the email requests on these kinds of subjects.

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief of Light Reading has a great chart showing the damage both AT&T and Time Warner has already done to the good people of Beaumont, Texas. I really need to hear from more folks in Beaumont – it has been the quietest of all of the victimized communities. For everyone else, this is an example of why we’re in this fight. If you live in Beaumont, your choices for flat rate broadband at reasonable pricing appears to be already a thing of the past. If you are one of the “lucky” Time Warner cap cities, one of your choices is about to evaporate. If you are living in a city that isn’t capping your access, the only word you need to remember is YET. We are your early warning wake-up call. This is YOUR fight as well, because if we cannot stop these egregious rationing plans today and now, they WILL be over your head tomorrow. That’s a 100% guarantee for the majority of American cities.

Table 1: Internet Usage Caps (Beaumont, Texas)

Oh, and by the way, AT&T, you are next. If you are stuck in Beaumont or Reno, Nevada, the test cities for AT&T’s caps, and want in on this fight, drop me a note or add your public comment here. I don’t want anyone to think this is just about Time Warner. It was about Frontier when this site started, and we’ve gone after AT&T and even Comcast. And our neighbors to the north in Canada can already tell you what living the Internet life under caps is like. It’s not a happy story. Canadians, your cause is also our cause. And although the approaches to solve it may not be the same, isn’t it time that consumers join forces and get started in driving public and private initiatives to stop the rationing of Internet access?

Joe "Pags" Pagliarulo (WOAI-San Antonio) Takes Calls from Angry San Antonio Residents About Time Warner Usage Caps

Conservative talker Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo doesn’t sound too convinced by Time Warner’s explanation of why they need to slap usage caps on their customers in San Antonio. StoptheCap! reader Josh was kind enough to send us the audio. Pags doesn’t like it, and he tells San Antonio listeners Time Warner is already making plenty of money at the existing flat rate.  He also tells listeners that several Beaumont subscribers ended up with Internet bills from Time Warner amounting to “hundreds of dollars” a month.

Joe has been online since the days of Prodigy, so he’s well aware of what sounds like fact and what sounds like fiction.

So much for the “potential savings” Time Warner keeps telling people could be just around the corner.  No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, it looks like nobody in the real world is convinced by Time Warner’s Money Party.

Audio Clip: WOAI-AM San Antonio, Texas (17 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip.