The sun is shining again here in western New York and it’s 52 degrees.  I’m still terribly offended by those videos from the folks in Austin in short sleeved shirts and leaf-filled trees out the window.  Our spring has only just begun!

If you’ve been wondering why the number of articles has dwindled in the last two days, it’s because of the growing number of media interviews I have been doing.  Reporters from across the country are taking an active interest in this story, recognizing that what Time Warner (among others) may try in a few cities will spread like wildfire across the rest of the country if they deem their experiments “successful.”  It is gratifying to know that so many consumers have joined forces to push back against this ridiculous rationing of Internet access at top dollar pricing.

We officially broke through the barrier of 20,000 unique visitors this afternoon.  That number only counts those who have arrived since April 1st.  The top three states being New York (13,043), Texas (3,126), and North Carolina (1,592) for obvious reasons.  More than 4,000 new people found this site yesterday alone.

I am pleased that more than 400 of you have already e-mailed news tips, story links, ideas, and/or have volunteered to help in this group effort.  If you have not seen your story idea or link appear here yet, it’s only because I haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Please don’t stop sending that information.

I have also been working on bringing more writers into our team.  It is my intention to find small groups willing to spearhead our efforts in each of the affected cities.  It appears Austin has gotten ready to step up and be the first, outside of me keeping tabs on what’s happening here in Rochester.  These local efforts are extremely important because each of you in your respective communities know what needs to be done, and it’s going to be easier for some of you to get that information up here fast than wait for me to get to it.  We are always looking for more people.

To get involved, just find the link below on the left to register for an account and send me a note on the Contact form asking for access to the editor.  I will e-mail you back instructions and guidelines, and then get started.

Over the weekend, I am going to create new tags for each of the affected cities, making it easier for people to find out about upcoming events and projects in each area.

I believe keeping us working together as a team is going to be more effective than scattering efforts across multiple sites.  StoptheCap! is about you and the power we have together to force back anti-consumer behavior.  The time has come to say, “we’ve had enough.”

If you are able to attend any of the upcoming events, and you are permitted to record the event, you can then upload your video to DailyMotion, YouTube or any of the other sites that permit us to embed your videos and we will get it up here for everyone to watch.

If you’ve arrived here because of an article in a local newspaper or TV newscast, welcome.  I know you probably have a lot of questions.  Many of them are probably already answered in one of the earlier articles we have here.  This site has the latest content first, and then works its way back in time from there.  You can access the pages that interest you from the Select Category box in the upper left of your screen.  Just click it and a box will open with various topics.  Select one that interests you and all articles pertaining to that topic will appear.  Most categories will have several pages of articles to review.  At the very bottom of the page, you can find a search box to find anything specific.  Also be sure to see the links running horizontally along the top banner.  You may want to explore Alternatives and Take Action regularly, as those sections will be updated often.

Many readers comment on the articles here.  Right beneath the headline, you will see “Comments.”  You can click that and read and reply to any of the reader comments found there.

I have more content on the way, so check back often!

This Week in Tech covers the Road Runner usage caps issue

Coming on the heels of yesterday’s report about the amazing inconsistency of responses coming from Time Warner customer service employees to our readers, here comes another one.  This Week in Tech [thanks to Steve Rea from Sound Bytes for pointing the way] covered the usage cap story this past weekend, and if you are new to this site and don’t understand what all the fuss is about, this is around eight minutes you need to hear to understand what is going on.  It covers the broadband industry model, the inconsistent messages the broadband industry is sending to consumers, and what one of the fundamental goals of broadband capping seeks to achieve: a reduction in risk to their primary video programming delivery business.  The more you watch online, the less you’ll think you need those bloated cable TV packages with all those channels you never watch.  A cap that makes watching video online an expensive proposition means you’ll think twice before watching another Hulu or Netflix movie on your computer.

I’d also like to share some of the behind-the-scenes contemplating I have been doing on this issue based on the evolving message coming from Time Warner on this issue.  I think the increasing reliance on their use of the words “experiment” and “test,” and the supposed willingness to “rethink” the level of the caps may be part of an effort to lay the groundwork for some sort of damage control announcement that the company is going to “double” or “triple” the caps in their upcoming “experiment.”  In thinking about how this industry has worked over the past two decades I have been keeping an eye on them, it would not be outside the realm of possibility for them to try and proclaim a “victory for consumers” by simply increasing the caps, but still imposing them anyway.

When you hear this podcast talking about Time Warner employees referring to some “internal memo” or “email” on this subject (and we’re always happy to receive our copy here at StoptheCap! should someone anonymously drop one our way), it would hardly be surprising if something akin to this wasn’t under consideration.

But I want to make everyone clear that a cap, of any kind, is honestly not a victory for anyone. It’s a Band-Aid.  And even assuming they tripled the proposed caps, where the maximum 40GB becomes 120GB, that still puts them below other competitors in this race to the bottom, and your bill is still going up, and now you have to watch a gas gauge every time you sit down in front of the computer.  And using their own claim that average subscribers are increasing their usage by 50% a year, we’ll be right back here on this issue soon enough as people start getting larger and larger cable bills for “going over.”

The only real victory here is a complete revocation of the “cap experiment.”  No caps.  If Time Warner wants to rake in additional revenue, why not consider creating new super-tiers that are priced higher, but also offer heavy users faster speeds, particularly for uploads.  There are plenty of heavy users of the net who already pony up an additional $10 a month for Road Runner Turbo, if only for increased upload speed.  I am among them.  In many markets, like Rochester, there is room to grow on the top end without imposing caps on anyone, and still collect additional money from subscribers who choose a better level of service.  Punitively punishing every customer from the very light to the very heavy user is nothing less than market abuse and an effort to extract even more dollars out of your customers.  The costs to upgrade their facilities to provide a level of service capable of easily growing with broadband demand is not nearly as expensive as they would lead you to believe.  We’ll get into the weeds on that issue shortly.

And it’s not just consumers saying caps are bad.  Other cable companies and those in the financial sector who track Time Warner are saying it too:

Pali Capital analyst Rich Greenfield, in a note to investors Wednesday, said asking consumers to keep checking their consumption “sounds tedious.”

“Let’s start with a simple premise: moving from an all-you can eat ‘buffet line’ for bandwidth usage via broadband to an a la carte system of paying for every gigabyte you eat is subscriber-unfriendly and will be confusing to the average broadband user,” he wrote, referencing the opposition by Massa and the Greensboro city council.

“In an increasingly competitive world, the age-old saying of ‘keep it simple stupid’ should not be overlooked,” Greenfield continued. “If competition exists, we suspect a provider offering broadband without caps or a simplified strategy toward broadband will gain meaningful market share, assuming TWC continues to move forward with its bandwidth-cap strategy.”

At last week’s Cable Show ’09, Jim Blackley, Cablevision Systems senior vice president of corporate engineering and technology, said on a panel discussion that bandwidth-usage caps are not in the MSO’s plans.

“We don’t want customers to think about byte caps so that’s not on our horizon,” he said. “We literally don’t want consumers to think about how they’re consuming high-speed services. It’s a pretty powerful drug and we want people to use more and more of it.”

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p style=”text-align: left;”>Press the play button to listen (you must remain on this web page to hear the entire segment):

Hat tip to Miguel who caught these comments on video from Wednesday’s meeting.  Thanks for doing this, and for holding up what I suppose is a cell phone for that long!  There are three segments.

Another series of town hall meetings you should try and attend to thank Congressman Massa for his efforts on our behalf:

Thursday, 4/09/09 6:30-8:00 pm
Pittsford Sutherland High School Auditorium
55 Sutherland St
Pittsford, NY 14534

-or-

Friday, 4/10/09 7:30-9:00 pm
Henrietta Fire Dept Training Center
60 Erie Station Road Extension (corner of E. River Road)
Henrietta, NY 14586

We’ve had numerous reports pouring in to StoptheCap! about the many methods Time Warner is using to try and retain their customers, who’ve already started canceling Road Runner service over the outrageous cash grab “experiment” they are conducting at the expense of residents in Austin, Greensboro, Beaumont, San Antonio and Rochester.

Now I don’t put the blame for this on the customer service representatives themselves, who have absolutely nothing to do with the decision to ration your Internet access at top dollar pricing.  They are being handed memos from management with “talking points” they are expected to use to try and hold on to your business.  But as the days pass and the cancellation calls continue to come in, this Titanic mistake on the part of Time Warner management has progressed to the point where some representatives are telling some pretty tall tales in order to keep people from leaving.

Just remember, when you call to complain and/or cancel, be polite.  These people are not the ones you should direct any anger towards.  Be persistent in making sure they understand that the reason you are calling is because of this usage cap.  It’s not about how much bandwidth you get, or them trying to pit how much usage you have vs. your neighbor.  This is about the fact there is a cap coming, you pay them enough money every month already, and you are either leaving today or you will cancel the millisecond this cap project goes live and the resulting Time Warner Money Party begins.  Be persuasive.  Tell the representatives you are not going to sit and watch a “gas gauge” worrying about every little thing you do online.  They make enough of your hard earned money already.  Let them know you’ve been a loyal customer and you feel abused, and that your trust in this company is now gone.  But also let them know that there is still time for them to cancel this entire project and leave your Internet access alone.  If they do, tell them all is forgiven and you will remain a loyal customer.  If you are leaving now, let them know you will always consider coming back in the future if the company learns from its mistakes.  But just like their proposed bandwidth meter, the clock is always ticking and time is running out.

And here, from our readers, are just a sampling over the last few days of the things they are hearing when calling to complain:

“I did talk to a nice TWC rep yesterday. Don’t remember her name, but I could tell she just didn’t believe this metering was a good idea at all, even as she was giving me the script.” (Sunflower)

“When I told the rep my reason for moving was to stop paying Time Warner and that I preferred to give my money to another company. She then informed me that the media was wrong. They would not be capping my service, rather I would only have to choose a plan in the summer. (I really don’t think that the rep’s even understand what is going on).” (Jeffrey)

“I called and canceled on Friday.  The woman at Time Warner said, “Honey, are you reading those blogger people?  All they do is write in their basement and eat Cheetos and they don’t know anything. I work for the company and I am telling you we are not going to charge you more, we are just testing this to see whether people like to pay less for their Internet. This is going to save your money!” (Louisein14624) [Phil: Ah, I recognize another Morning Joe watcher when I see one… bloggers eating Cheetos….  I hate cheese flavored Styrofoam personally.]

“I live in San Antonio. Here is what happened to me: This weekend I called Time Warner to let them know that metered usage is a deal breaker. They meter, I drop all services. Tonight, customer retention calls and attempts to offer me a deal on my cable. (I couldn’t believe it.) I stop the rep and let him know I’m not interested in any deals.  Once I voice my concern he states,  ‘You know that AT&T is going to do the same thing, right?’” (Josh) [Phil: AT&T is testing a 150GB cap in poor Beaumont, the city that just can’t win, to get reaction from customers.  After watching the blow back over Time Warner, perhaps they will tread more carefully.]

“TWC customer service rep told me the exact same thing in Rochester. He said you know Frontier, Verizon, etc. are all going to put in bandwidth caps.  When I told him he was wrong he tried to tell me that he was privy to insider information that Frontier and Verizon aren’t telling the public. He said he had an email from Verizon and Frontier in his inbox saying they are going to put in bandwidth caps.” (Craig)

“I got the same run around when I called. ‘We have no plans to place an internet cap on out broadband services, what we are doing this summer is simply collecting data.’” (Down With TWC!) [Phil: Simply collecting data so that we can place a usage cap on your Internet.  They are going to have a meter up over the summer so you can see your usage, before they charge you a fortune for it in the fall.]

“I called TW to ask about the new plan, and basically give them a piece of my mind. First off, I found it interesting that with no reported outages, the wait time was 20 minutes. Hmm, people with concerns maybe? So, I get a very nice lady. Mind you, I have always been happy with customer service reps there, but wow, they have been briefed heavy as of late. I was told that none of the hype in the media was substantiated, and as of [Monday], ‘there are no plans in place at this time to start any rationing of broadband in Rochester.’  I could hear the exact same conversations going on in the background, and when she asked my about what sources I had for this information, I mentioned one of the TW reps that was on the news. To which I was told that the information was taken out of context. At this point, I politely told her that for now, I was a happy customer, but by the end of the year I would be ‘getting my services from a more customer oriented company.'” (Dan) [Phil: I love it when people complain they were taken out of context when their direct quotes were published.]

“The representative told me the usage caps will be applied to NEW customers who sign-up for Road Runner service only. Existing customers, and customers who subscribe to both cable AND RR, will be unaffected.” (Jay) [Phil: The Beaumont trial only impacted new customers.  The latest test will impact on every customer.  I could find nobody who would confirm the claim by the representative that it would not affect those who take both cable and data packages.]

"Test" Money to Pay for Time Warner's Usage Cap "Test"

Here is the solution to this entire matter.  Let them know you will change your mind, and stay, if they are willing to mail you a letter that states, explicitly and without condition, that as long as you remain a Time Warner customer, your broadband account will never be subjected to any usage meter, bandwidth or usage cap, consumption billing, or termination of the existing plan you are on right now.  If they aren’t willing to send you that written guarantee, everything else they say denying this punitive usage cap is just a lot of talk that ultimately says nothing.

Experiments and tests that involve your wallet are nothing to dismiss so casually.  When they say it’s just a test, ask them if it is then okay to pay for the resulting higher bills coming this fall with “test” Monopoly money, which is particularly appropriate when we are talking about cable companies.

MONOPOLY�, THE DISTINCTIVE DESIGN OF THE GAME BOARD, THE FOUR CORNER SQUARES, AS WELL AS EACH OF THE DISTINCTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE BOARD AND THE PLAYING PIECES ARE TRADEMARKS OF HASBRO, INC. FOR ITS REAL ESTATE TRADING GAME AND GAME EQUIPMENT. ©1935, 1936, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1961, 1973, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 HASBRO, INC.