Broadband Caps: Turning the Internet Back to 1996

There is a disparity in Internet usage between the young and the old.

If one were to poll customers about whether or not they wanted limits and tiers on their broadband service, two things are apparent:

1. Consumers overwhelmingly oppose usage caps and tiered accounts.
2. Those that do approve of caps and tiers are overwhelmingly older users of the Internet, particularly 45+ of age.

Broadband providers recognize these facts, yet continue to attempt to place limits on broadband usage.  Many providers’ have marketing and public relations strategies that target older customers with an “us vs. them” approach.  Why should you, as a casual Internet user, “subsidize” those younger heavy users who are fully leveraging the Internet to its fullest potential?  Company officials will often toss around broadband services older users have never heard of, much less used.  “Bit Torrents,” “heavy movie downloads from newsgroups,” “Hulu,” just to name a few, confound a lot of casual net users who have barely mastered their e-mail account, much less considered making video calls using Skype.

The generation gap lives online too.  But there is a lot more to this story than they tell you.

Some companies claim the majority of their customers consume a tiny amount of bandwidth when compared against other customers.  Traditionally, the older a customer, the less bandwidth they consume.  And therein lies a problem for them.  As the demographics for the net continue to shift towards younger, heavier consumers of Internet applications, the writing is on the whiteboard.  No longer can a broadband provider expect to pocket the enormous profits they earn from a monthly service that some users barely even use.

There should be nothing wrong with a casual user paying less for their Internet service.  The question is, should they receive less expensive service at the “price” of severely curtailing other users who naturally consume more?  That seems to be the marketing plan.  They get to overcharge you for a casual user plan and also overcharge and limit heavier users from consuming too much on their networks.  They win.  Everyone else loses.

The truth is, most broadband providers already provide discounted plans for light users, usually at slower speeds, but at significantly lower pricing.  For a casual user reading e-mail and browsing web pages, the Internet speed war is irrelevant.  Anything more than three or four times faster than dial-up access will provide comfortable browsing without sitting around waiting for pages to load.  With a “light” user plan, you can still listen to Internet radio, move pictures of the kids back and forth, do all the web browsing you could imagine, and your e-mail will still arrive super fast.  Since you don’t care about big downloads or watching TV online, why pay for the extra speed you’ll never use?  You don’t have to.  More importantly, you don’t have to right now!  Despite the fact many of these “lite” plans are the best kept secret in town, your provider probably already offers them, and you don’t have to wait for some new tier plan to sign up!

I called several providers this afternoon and inquired about Internet broadband service.  Every last one of them quickly tried to sell me a bundle of services combining cable television, telephone, and Internet service for a single monthly price.  No provider asked about how I used the Internet, much less talk about different levels of service.  They simply wanted to move that bundle, often with a promotional price for the first six months or year of service.  That bundle always included the standard package of Internet for around $40 a month, which is probably overkill for casual users.

Only when I complained about the price or suggested I didn’t think I would use the Internet that much did the “lite plan” details finally start coming into the conversation.  Time Warner pitched Road Runner Lite only after saying I didn’t want the phone service and felt I wouldn’t use the Internet very often.  Frontier tried to convince me that once I got online, I’d want the extra speed and resisted trying to get me into anything other than a bundle with a standard Internet plan, touting a free mini netbook if I also took their “Peace of Mind” support package and a contract.  Verizon FiOS in Buffalo said it was no problem, since they sell packages of Internet service based on speed anyway.  Typical.  The fiber optic competitor was the only one that volunteered the light plan and asked how much I used the Internet before recommending a plan.  Of course, where there is FiOS, there are no usage caps in those communities.

If you are shopping for cable modem or DSL service, they are not apt to volunteer information about their “light user” plans unless you ask.

Another way you are certain to hear about these kinds of discount plans is when you try and cancel your standard broadband service.  They want to keep you as a customer, so you’ll be pitched a discount plan just to keep you.

It’s unfortunate that many broadband providers claim to be for saving light users money, but for all intents and purposes keep those plans a secret.  If you are a casual user looking for a deal, buying into the proposition of tiered pricing with steep overlimit fees is a bad deal for you and everyone else.  A flat rate, speed limited “lite plan” gives you everything you need, and you never have to worry that you might get billed for more than you expect.  The good news is, you can get these types of plans today.  Call your provider and ask!

I have to hand it to Frontier Communications, the DSL competitor to Time Warner’s cable modem service in Rochester.  They seem to have improved their marketing efforts considerably since last summer, and have handily taken advantage of Time Warner’s nightmarish rationing plan, now temporarily shelved.  Below the fold, check out the full page ad they took out in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.  Our advice: keep the ads running all spring and summer, because it’s highly likely we haven’t heard the last of the cap nonsense from Time Warner.

StoptheCap! has sent Frontier quite a bit of business since the cap announcement was made by Time Warner and customers sought alternatives.  Now, if Frontier management would only stop penning internal memos to their employees as late as a few weeks ago bashing the “opinion leaders” like us they claim “harm their reputation.”  Note to Frontier: When you do dumb-dumb things like define an acceptable amount of broadband usage at 5GB per month, don’t blame us for harming your reputation.  You did that all by yourself.  When you reformed and dumped those caps overboard, as you did recently, you gained a lot of new customers and kept your existing ones.  If, in 2010, you decide to try and bring back caps, just remember what this community did to Time Warner in two weeks, and then get smart and don’t even consider it.  We’re watching.  We’re always watching.

Remember, customers don’t want caps.  Not now.  Not ever.  Period.

… Continue Reading

Sometimes this is too easy. They underestimate us every time.

The “education campaign” Time Warner promised has begun, and it’s Amateur Hour! TWAlex is back tweeting a “pro-consumer” advocacy campaign FOR tiered Internet pricing. But as you’ll learn shortly, it’s all going to backfire on them as we expose the hackery. A number of our readers are already on the case, and we’ll have our own package letting you know the facts they left out!

Stay tuned!

I managed to get down to the rally site at Highland Park with the plan of zipping down to the cable store to swap cable modems and be across the street in time for the arrival of the walking protest group.  When I arrived at the cable store, Wilfred Brimley was standing at the bifurcation point of the parking lot, shooting dagger stares at everyone.  Time Warner security.  In addition to having all but one entrance blocked off with cones and Time Warner trucks backed end to end (were they expecting Hezbollah?), someone got out the FedEx Kinko’s card and ran up a dozen “private property – for business customers only” signs and planted them all around the entrances.

I entered the cable store, which had another security guy sitting at his desk, and one family waiting for service.  I was in and out in five minutes with a replacement cable modem.

Wilfred was still glaring in my direction.  I got back into the car and parked across the street and waited.  Within 10 minutes, the 30+ protesters arrived (when people assume the matter was resolved with Senator Schumer’s visit, it does have a tendency to reduce turnout until people become re-engaged), and more security turned up outside of the building.  The group then ended up on the sidewalk in front of Time Warner and spent about an hour waving signs and accepting waves and honks from passersby.  I shook the hand of one Time Warner employee who came out to say hello.  As I’ve always said, I don’t have any issues with local employees, or even management.  They play the cards they were dealt.

Just prior to leaving, I get a phone call on my cell phone from … Time Warner.  They were expediting my service call to this afternoon and asked if I would be home to receive them.  I asked the lady calling if she could see me waving at her from the sidewalk.  Upon reaching home, a Time Warner repair truck arrived several minutes later and, it seems, found that the new modem may have done the trick.  He also checked the signals on the pole and changed a fitting, and we seem to be back in business.

Also as I’ve always said, Time Warner delivers excellent service to their customers, and the service crews are top notch.  That’s all the more reason why we want to fight to keep the excellent service we’ve had for years.  We just want to pay a reasonable and rational price for it.

The rally, by the way, attracted Channel 8/31, R-News (who didn’t have far to go), and I was told Channel 10.  The Democrat & Chronicle was also there.  I want to thank the rally organizers for their efforts and work on this.  We need these kinds of public events to help keep focus on these issues, and have a chance to make connections with each other to stay engaged.  If anyone has video, pictures, etc., please let me know.  I will arrange to have it embedded here for people to see.

I have been carefully contemplating the last 48 hours of roller coaster riding, and I hate roller coasters.

I wanted to reflect on and consider all of the information, announcements, public statements, press releases, and industry reaction to yesterday’s announcement that Time Warner was withdrawing its Internet rationing nightmare.  I’ve talked to a number of players, folks in the media, some of the groups in other cities, and have been in touch with many of you.  The one thing that seems fundamentally clear: nobody is picking up what Time Warner is putting down — this fight isn’t over.

I am convinced that Time Warner is stalling.  They haven’t really changed their minds about anything.  They still think they’re right: the problem isn’t draconian usage caps, it is that people weren’t properly conditioned to accept them first, and after a mind-numbing “education campaign” with the gas gauge, the OPEC of the Internet will be back by the fall, probably with almost the identical plan they “shelved” yesterday.  They hope that with a summer of their gauge, you won’t stay engaged in this issue, if you don’t hit their caps… yet.

They crumbed the play in their press release.  One of my favorite films, David Mamet’s House of Games, says it all:

Oh, you’re a bad pony. And I’m not gonna bet on you.

So we resume the battle.  It’s time for more competition.  This would have never been tried had the company not felt confident their customer base wouldn’t evaporate.  We need to see an end to “exclusives” in this marketplace.  It’s time for regulation when there is no competition.  If you want to act like a monopoly, get regulated like one.  And it’s time to start helping push, where appropriate, municipal broadband solutions run in the public interest, to ensure equity of access and an end to the limbo dancing to see how low caps can go while your bill goes up.

I continue to appreciate the efforts of Senator Schumer and Congressman Massa.  Both are watching this company very closely, and I think further action needs to be taken, and a watchful eye kept.  I truly believe they are on our side and will drop the hammer if this company comes back with the exact same plan dolled up for resale.  But I just do not believe they can do it all.  Time Warner has still not gotten the message from its customers yet.  They need to understand that another definition of Cap ‘n Tier is CANCEL.

If they run an “education campaign,” that is what we need to do as well, to educate our friends, families, and neighbors that a profitable company is advocating a ridiculous rationing plan that costs too much, offers too little, and thinks that you’ll be their biggest advocate if they get you to believe you are going to save money.

As I’ve said over and over again, when is the last time your cable bill ever went down from year to year?  How much more do you need to know?