Many people still think of broadband Internet access as some sort of luxury “extra,” like a premium movie channel on your cable subscription, or maybe a nice dinner out at an expensive restaurant.  Only it’s not.  Increasingly, students are choosing where to attend school based on connectivity, high tech business incubators are built in communities where access is available at affordable prices, and now one New York State senator has released a report showing lack of access to affordable broadband is hurting the real estate market.

Senator George Winner (R/C/I – Elmira) released a report last fall documenting the trials and tribulations of inadequate availability and competition for broadband in smaller towns and cities, including many in his district in the southern tier of New York.

Winner fears that without equity of access and a healthy competitive marketplace, the impact will be felt community-wide.

Lack of access to broadband is influencing the real estate market. Homes that have broadband are winning out over more remote ones that don’t. Areas with better and faster broadband are becoming more desirable than ones with slower access. Experts believe that over time, the lack of universal broadband, could pull people from the countryside toward cities and suburbs. On the federal level, the FCC is considering using the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service in rural areas, to promote broadband coverage as well.

That’s why communities like Elmira, and others in the Twin Tiers region, were paying attention when Time Warner announced broadband usage cap experiments in Beaumont, Texas.  For most, Road Runner -is- their broadband provider.

Can anyone place that anchor’s accent?  It’s definitely not from the western New York area!

StoptheCap! heard from many Frontier customers scattered nationwide across their service area, which encompasses mostly rural communities from coast to coast.  For them, broadband Internet service means getting it from an expensive satellite service, or getting DSL from Frontier Communications.  There is no cable service in many of these communities.  When Frontier was considering a usage cap of 5GB per month, these consumers weren’t just alarmed, they were in full panic.

Rural and underserved markets are routinely bypassed by providers from the latest technological innovations, and are often under punitive contracts at high prices.  Senator Winner’s report details private and public initiatives to reach these communities.  He’s a conservative Republican who serves a district that would prefer not to be bothered by political schemes hatched in Albany, but the issue of broadband access is one that crosses party lines, as readers of this site have come to learn.  It’s not a right or left issue.  It’s one that will rapidly become as important as wiring communities for electricity and universal access to telephone service.

Expensive caps and overlimit fees are an anathema to the development of broadband nationwide.  It’s an issue rural communities are following, as they often have few, if any alternatives.

WXII in the Triad told its viewers that although the Time Warner usage cap plan was being put on hold, it was by no means gone for good.  The reporter told viewers the suspension came from “confusion” and “backlash” from Time Warner customers.

Time Warner’s talking point about saving the elderly money is on full display here, as the reporter tells viewers if they send only a couple dozen e-mails, it means they “end up paying more for those who spend hours on end gaming online.”  Of course, the report fails to mention those customers can save money today on a Road Runner Lite plan.  It’s really just a classic case of trying to pit customers against one another using the “us vs. them” card.  They hope dangling those shiny keys in customers’ faces will distract them from realizing that nobody’s cable bill ever really goes down — not unless you drop services along the way.

A talking point festival from Time Warner’s perspective.  I’m not sure if this report was a companion to another, but this on a standalone basis was simply a recitation of Time Warner’s claims.  Interestingly, the piece still quotes Time Warner maintaining the same plan — the gas gauge will then tell viewers “whether they need to go up a plan or down a plan.”

R-News is owned and operated by Time Warner.  There has traditionally been a firewall in place between R-News and Time Warner itself, and the reports have generally been far more balanced than the hackery at News 14 in North Carolina.  Still, they managed to use a broken up talking point from me about “loving the company.”  Of course, if the cap issue were dead and buried, as most of us in attendance were led to believe that afternoon, why not?  I’ve been happy with Road Runner since being one of the early beta testers back in 1998.  At the end of the press event that Thursday, I was thrilled for about … oh, 45 minutes, until getting home and reading the press release from Time Warner.

Senator Schumer’s very insistent point that “they are not going to use Rochester as a guinea pig for any tiered pricing plan, period” may come back to haunt Time Warner if they bring the dog and pony Cap ‘n Tier show back to the Flower City this fall.  There certainly wasn’t any wiggle room in the senator’s statement on the matter.  Will Time Warner defy the senior senator from New York?  We’ll be watching.

As we continue our journey across the cities that were originally intended to be part of Time Warner’s experimental caps, it’s not difficult to see that viewers had been complaining long and loud, not just to Time Warner, but also to area TV station news departments.

The temporary suspension announcement reached San Antonio late in the afternoon on Thursday, April 16th.  Same upset customers, same talking points from Time Warner that “education” is all that is needed to cram a rate hike and ration plan on customers.  They still don’t get it.

This was probably a quick report for the late afternoon newscast.  No packaged piece here.  But the anchor makes it clear customers didn’t like it, and also gave Time Warner’s views, making it balanced.

News 14 Carolina (Time Warner State Television) is back with another example of journalism excellence… if you lived in North Korea.  On News 14, there is always time for Melissa Buscher, Time Warner spokeswoman, to expand on her views about Time Warner shelving their trial in this second spectacularly one-sided piece.  Ms. Anchor is only too happy to volunteer that it was just like a cell phone plan (that nobody wanted).

I’d ask if anyone watching this, and other related pieces that include Time Warner officials, if it sounds like this tiered pricing plan is “shelved” or merely “postponed” until the Time Warner Re-Education Summer Camps open.

No customers are heard from, nor a single confirmation that the plan itself was radically unpopular with customers.  The Time Warner listening tour has never included them in the first place, so consistency is at least something you have to hand these people.

Wow….  “What displeasure with Time Warner Five Year Internet Plan to save comrades money who toil in the fields instead of using Interwebs?”