The Austin Community Technology & Telecommunications Commission convened this past Wednesday for their monthly meeting to discuss, among other items, possible actions on Time Warner Cable consumption billing for broadband Internet.  According to chairman Chip Rosenthal, it was the longest agenda in the many years he’s been there, and the TWC discussion didn’t come up until after 9 p.m.

As a concerned Austinite and former TWC customer (thanks to AT&T U-verse!), I attended this meeting to make sure all the important information on the subject was made available to the commissioners.  I only had three minutes to speak, as per meeting rules, which wasn’t near enough time for me to get through my three pages of material.  Luckily though, since the topic was an agenda item, the commission was allowed to ask questions and they were gracious enough to ask me open-ended questions and allow me to continue my points.  I stressed to the Commission that the most effective actions they and the City Council could do is file comments to the FCC and the FTC, and to put pressure on state and federal legislators to remove impediments to municipal broadband.  I emphasized that even if the City has no intention of creating a municipal broadband service, it is to Austin’s benefit to have the option on the table.  I told the commission that I believe a major reason TWC initially chose Austin as one of its metered billing test markets is that TWC knew the city’s hands were tied and that it had no real recourse.  During the discussion after my presentation, the commission agreed to work on a resolution recommending to the City Council that, through the City Attorney, submissions be filed to the FCC, Federal Trade Commission, and the Texas State Attorney General, and they agreed that the city should begin working with state and federal legislators to stop abusive practices.  The commission also agreed they should focus their efforts on  the state and federal level because little could be done at the municipal level, and that they should seek out other municipalities in a similar situation to present a coordinated effort.

There were two interesting facts that I learned at this meeting.  One, the municipal franchise that TWC has with the city of Austin will expire in 2011, but at that point it will transition to a state franchise agreement.  I had never heard of a state franchise before.  I know that the negotiating power the city has at franchise renewal will be diluted considerably on the state level. Second, the current franchise only applies to TWC cable TV service, not its broadband products.  It was brought up in the meeting that Grande Communications, another regional cable provider, has full authority to compete in TWC’s market for broadband service.  This raised a serious flag to me.  If both cable TV and broadband products are carried on the same infrastructure, but the franchise agreement only applies to the cable TV service, then they are in effect creating and illegal de facto franchise out of the broadband market.  Grande cannot compete with TWC’s broadband product, because they’re not allowed to bring their cable TV infrastructure into TWC’s market.

Since TWC has decided to shelve it’s metered broadband trials in Ausin for the time being, there is not much the Telecom Commission can do against current TWC actions other than possibly investigate instances of service being shut off based on a soft 40 GB cap in their excessive use clause.  But the commission has resolved to begin the groundwork necessary to fight this issue in the future by codifying its own policies and rules for fair market practices and pressing the city of Austin to lobby state and federal lawmakers.

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.

Time Warner Cable has appointed Andrew Heller, a 25-year veteran of the cable industry to oversee the cable-owned video project dubbed TV Everywhere.

TV Everywhere is the brainchild of Time Warner Cable, which wants to create a new central video distribution platform leveraging broadband to deliver streamed, on demand TV shows and movies, but only to verified customers of cable companies that already take a video channel package.

Andrew Heller, TWC's Head of 'TV Everywhere'

The cable industry is afraid that broadband customers might decide to watch all of their television online, and simply drop or bypass traditional cable television packages.  TV Everywhere is designed to stop that, by prohibiting non cable-video subscribers from accessing cable network programming online.

The first test of the new service is due during the second quarter of this year.  Meanwhile, the cable operator is engaged in intense discussions with programmers to state their case that it is unfair for them to pay monthly subscription fees for programming, when those same programmers are giving away clips and shows on the web for free.

Assuming the company is successful in its negotiations, programming websites would discontinue much of their traditional online video and get customers to “authenticate” they are verified cable TV subscribers before being permitted to access on demand video.

In a new wrinkle, Heller told Advertising Age that TV Everywhere is not going to be free, even to existing cable subscribers.  In fact, he’s concerned that consumers may stage protests similar to what Time Warner Cable received after testing metered pricing for Internet service.

The price of TV Everywhere has also been a subject of recent debate after Time Warner Cable canceled plans, after a huge outcry by customers, to test metered consumption of broadband video in certain markets.

“The consumer’s going to speak with their pocketbook,” Mr. Heller said. “We do know they want a new model, we do know they want more choice and they use their computer as an additional outlet. We will do what we can to listen to them.”

The question is, do consumers “want a new model” for online video, or are they satisfied accessing content the way they do now — through video programmer websites, or purchasing viewing rights for series from iTunes, Netflix, or Amazon?  Are consumers clamoring for a cable-controlled video platform that only provides access, for a price, to customers who already pay for a cable subscription including video channels?  Will this “listening tour” be like the last one the company attempted during the metered billing fiasco?

One of the biggest anti-consumer disasters of the last 15 years was President Clinton’s signing of the 1996 Communications Act.  This bought and paid for legislation deregulated a major part of the telecommunications sector with the idea that the “free market” would somehow provide sufficient checks and balances to protect against media concentration, monopoly abuse, and locking out technological advancement wherever robust competition was unlikely.

How’s that working out for you?

Consolidation and corporate control of broadcasting, telephony, broadband, and other communications services has been rampant and largely unchecked by the Federal Communications Commission during the last 10+ years.  The result is a handful of players controlling the services we all depend on in our daily lives.  Usage caps and overpriced tiered billing is just the latest example of market concentration.  Companies realize consumers have few options for equivalent services, so they can dictate the terms and conditions with almost no oversight or control.  Local and state governments confronting this issue have come to realize their hands are tied, because telecommunications deregulation without assurances of a competitive marketplace always equal monopolistic behavior.

Net neutrality has also been a victim of a hands-off regulatory authority that is supposed to foster competition, equity in access, and prohibit abusive behavior.  The Federal Communications Commission has failed on every front.

… Continue Reading

Thanks to Jay Ovittore and the City of Wilson, we have the video from the consideration of HB 1252, the horrible bill that would have made municipal broadband a virtual impossibility in the state of North Carolina.  Everyone who participated in our pushback should give themselves a pat on the back, because YOU helped make all the difference between broadband choice and advancement in the state vs. forcing communities into a broadband backwater.  Don’t believe for a second you just have to sit back and take what big telecom forces on you.  This shows you don’t!

This is what we can do — make the difference!

The NC Public Utilities Committee sends HB 1252 to a study committee. May 6, 2009.