Big Dan's Corner

It’s been all over the internet this past week or  that Time Warner Cable is starting expanded testing of metered broadband. It’s hitting close to home for me Rochester, New York just a few hours away from me has been selected for this ‘testing’. Testing in this case actually means how much crap will our customers take before they go elsewhere. It’s now rumored that Frontier, the only competitor in many TWC regions was is considering even stiffer caps.

First of all let’s define bandwidth metering: Metering is simply keeping track of how much bandwidth you use. Bandwidth in this case is the amount of information your downloading and uploading to the internet. Everything you do online uses bandwidth from checking email, to downloading tracks from iTunes, to watching YouTube, to reading this very web page. Bandwidth monitoring is analogous to cell phone companies charging you per minute except it’s a set amount of data normally per GB (Gigabyte).

Now many people will say you use more you pay more it’s quite simple and I would agree with them. However  ever since it’s conception broadband has been unmetered and only lately, as in the last year or so has anyone heard broadband providers complaining about network saturation this is because of the proliferation of sites like YouTube, torrents, and file sharing. My issue with this is for years ISPs have been raking in the fees normally at $50/mo per subscriber for little to no change in service which means a vast majority of subscriber fees generated, in the millions per month was pure profit for them. Now that it comes time to upgrade the network they’re crying foul and want to gouge their loyal customers.

Time Warner’s reasoning is just plain flawed. There is a new standard for cable broadband called DOCSIS 3. DOCSIS which in short is the technology which enables you and I able to get high speed internet over the cable system. Current systems are DOCSIS 2 which are “limited” in speed. DOCSIS 3 is supposed to be roughly 6-12 times faster than the old standard. As I understand it our current modems will still be compatible with the new standard so that TWC does not have to give all of it’s to subscribers new modems. TWC can give new customers the new DOCSIS 3 modems and give the customers who request (or more likely upgrade) to the super fast internet capabilities new modems. New York Time’s says it will not cost more than $100 per subscriber for the upgrade to DOCSIS 3 and that’s with a brand spanking new modem.

Now let’s step back and take a look at broadband offerings in the US. Typically it’s offered in tiers most companies have 3 tiers which basically means the more you pay the faster you can download stuff. You have slow (~$20/mo), average (~$50/mo), and fast (~$80/mo +) These tiers have nothing to do with how much you can download just how fast you can download it. Basically with all tiers you can drive as far as you want on a highway just the higher the tier the faster you can drive.

Metered broadband seeks to change all that in the name of charging you more (allegedly for upgrades) so you can drive faster but with the meters you cannot drive as far.Does it make any sense to institute caps to pay for upgrades so that your subscribers can GO faster but cannot drive as far without excessive overage charges?

I thought maybe there was something wrong with me but no it doesn’t makes sense. Not to mention the fact that perhaps the company should eat these upgrade costs as they’ve been raking in millions per month with broadband as a cash cow and now that a slight upgrade is needed for cable to stay competitive with fiber to the home options they want to pass the cost along to us and rake in even more profits on top of it. It just doesn’t hold water and wreaks of GREED

Let’s look at something over the past year or so lots and lots of people have been legally watching TV shows and movies online, thus not watching much TV. To be fair video does take up the most bandwidth of all forms of data. Does anyone think once bandwidth caps are instuted people might go back to watching TV so they don’t waste thier data on video feeds? Bingo the cable cos want to force people into watching TV again — TV as a medium sucks with all the commericals being shoved down your throat not to mention the crap fest that is TV these days content wise but more eyeballs equals more ad revenue plain and simple. With the internet and services like Netflix on demand and Hulu people now have a choice and TWC does not like that; These bandwidth caps are one way to get more people to turn on the idiot box again.

Now as to why DSL companies are jumping onboard — I don’t know why DSL is a limited technology there are no new standards that need upgrading to me thinks they just want more money for the same old crappy service.