Full disclosure: I have absolutely no idea how many gigabytes of data I download each month. I'm just proud I know that a GB is bigger than a megabyte, which is bigger than a kilobyte, and that's all you're going to get from me. So I can't say one way or the other that Time Warner's plan to test-market a tiered bandwith pricing system in my area would've cost me more one way or the other. And I think that's kind of the problem.
I don't know if anyone at the cable company is aware of this, but the economy's mildly f*cked right now. So blithely informing people that what's already the largest utility bill for many might go up without any translation of how much or for whom is just bad corporate communication. Maybe if Time Warner had been prepared with a breakdown of typical Internet usage for a family or business, people wouldn't have freaked out. As it is, we were left wondering - is this just for the guy who watches every TV show online or plays World of Warcraft for 14 hours every day, or is my cable bill going to go up? Will I get a discount if I use less than my allotted amount of whatever? Should I relocate my small business to an area where I can better budget my cable-related expenses?
(Speaking of the proverbial Internet TV guy... Could this proposal possibly be motivated by a loss of revenue in Time Warner's TV division? In other words, if we can't get them on the tube, we'll nail 'em on YouTube? Surely not.)
For now, Time Warner has blinked. But they haven't totally given up the idea.
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