Congressman Unveils Bill to Fight ISP Caps

Exactly!
Take the licence from TWC. we do not need stupid ideas which will drag US backwards.
SOmeone throw shoe size 10 to TWC CEO, please. or hack their system and let their system fried

Finally a big guy standing up for the little guys.

It's nice to see that there is someone on the hill with some common sense and/or listening to the people they are supposed to represent.

It's nice to see that there is some common sense still on the Hill and that they are actually listening to the folks that put them there to represent them.

Go get them! Beat down the monopolies that control our crap internet. When someone gets serious about it, maybe we can finally get some good internet.

I'm all for something to be done BY US THE CONSUMER. TWC has a right to charge whatever they want. And we have the right not to buy what they sale! The government needs to stop this crap. I don't like what they're doing but we have the finale say so. Don't buy it!!!

That didn't take long! I guess sometimes the people do have a voice?

or maybe he's just faking it to offset the fact that he's taking huge amount of money from the companies he's now looking to regulate...

"Time Warner has announced an ill-conceived plan to charge residential and business broadband fees based on the amount of data they download. They have yet to explain how increased internet usage increases their costs."

Even better, I want a cable company to explain to me how reducing the total amount of data downloaded in a month helps the problem of not having enough bandwidth at any given moment. Even if everyone had a 5GB cap, if they all chose to download at the same time, it wouldn't solve anything, there would still be bottle necks. Its not total usage over time, its total usage at any given moment.

My only fear is that this could end up being one step toward our government mandating what companies can and cannot do with the internet. We always talk about NOT regulating the internet, and I wonder if a bill passing that tells an ISP what they can and cannot do will lead to larger issues.

My point is that caps suck balls. There's no two ways about it. I just wonder if it's a government issue. One way for TWC to get rid of the cap idea is for users to switch providers. That'll make more noise than anything.

I don't know. Just thinking out loud. I'd just hate to see a bill two years from now regulating something with the net now that the door might be open to federal regulations. The last thing we need is the FCC wondering if they can get their hands on the internet.

But yeah, caps suck. I'm just nervous.

The problem is that in some areas there is no other choice for broadband internet. I only have the choice of 1.5 Mbit DSL or 10 Mbit Cable. This, I hope, will help keep any company from overchargeing for their service.

To follow up with my comment and someone mentioning monopolies, that might be the bigger issue. We have laws to avoid or eliminate monopolies, but we seem to have hit a rut with allowing just a few huge companies to offer the same service at a similarly high price. That's part of the problem.

Where I live I have ONE cable option and ONE dsl option. They both overcharge for 1.5meg service. That sucks. Where's the competition?

ok sounds good, what if twc is the only broadband service around. what then do they get to charge as much as they want. what happens to the citizens, do they have to move out of the area.

the reason that government gets to have an input is because they companies have made deals with the local governments which have allowed them to exclusively control areas of the country without competition.

i know of towns where they have even made it hard to install dishes which competes against the cable companies that the town has struct a franchise with.

then again we have the best government money can buy...

It's not a government issue. Don't get me wrong, I hate cappin' as much as the next guy, but bringing the federal government into it will only cause problems into the long run.

The U.S. government dosen't have the best track record with "solving problems" and not screwing the average citizen in the process.

:0 let just force IPv6 need more ip addresses in my routers! I'm fine with GB caps as long as it's above 100g at min i'm fine with it, imo comcast 250gb is plenty for most users and logical even a heavy user would have to do alot to pass it downloading a good amount of hd movies over the month. Anything less then 100g imo at even dsl speeds is a slap to the face.

I can understand that TWC is trying to stop consumers from illegally downloading movies and music from the internet, but capping is not going to stop large or small organized crime syndicates from this?

They in turn would have many locations so downloading is not a problem.

Time Warner already lost a bunch of subscribers (including me) to their cable services in Western New York when they didn't air the Buffalo Bills games for a few weeks.

I guess TW didn't feel like paying the local station (that actually aired the game), because people could still watch the game for free anyways over the antenna, big difference was in the signal quality!
TW ended up paying for the station again after a few weeks of bleeding customers. Seems like they haven't learned their lesson.

Even though I canceled their TV service, I still have them as an ISP. Now I am ready to switch off of them completely as soon as FiOS is available.

TWC, statue... Internet users, pidgeons flying

As long as this idiot can legislate unlimited bandwidth we're all set. I hope he move on to requiring 500mpg cars! That would help.

I have to agree - the U.S. govt. doesn't have the best record with joe-blow or what was it, joe the plumber? But the U.S. govt. does have a big stick it can swing at Time Warner and I am all 100% for that! I am just elated to hear someone actually has some common sense to and is working on something that effects a lot of us out here - unlike the tv news who has nothing better to talk about or push on american citizens than the fact that the president got a dog. Uh yeah, that's important and effects my daily life, sure. I better make sure to DVR that priceless 15 minute jewel of tv news media! Was the dog bought with my tax dollars? Grrr - now I'm thinking about the talk of nationalizing banks and the stupid oil companys!

The problem is that the people that TWC does this to dont have much choice, thats why theyre doing it to them. I believe that the government should protect the rights of the people.

you are obviously to stupid to understand that in many counties there is one IP offered and raising rates and placing caps hurts everyone there..

I am not for government control, but when they allow local monopolies, there may be no other choice to switch to. I only have 2 options, Comcast Cable or dial-up, and I really don't consider dial-up an option.

I'm just glad someone in Congress recognized that there was a business out there was trying to make American broadband go backwards. In an era where just about every middle-class Korean and Japanese family can afford a 100mbps PARALLEL (Same speed ups and down) connection, god knows its about time we stepped up virtual production over on this side of the world.

Bravo. Let's just hope government interference doesn't get out of hand.

awww, did some Time Warner rep. visit the article and get his feelings hurt? nice how someone went through and rated every comment down! lol guess there are still some dufus's lacking common sense out there - or some just plain greedy sob's.

As a time warner subscriber I will definitely switch to AT&T if they try and put a limit on bandwidth in Wisconsin. I stream movies with netflix, I download trial software (not to mention updates) and I use a VPN to shuttle very large file from home to work. Honestly... I don't mind having to pay more for my large uses. But, really... what they should be doing is giving discounts to those that hardly use anything. I pay $60 a month for unlimited use. My mom pays the same. I probably use 1000GB of bandwidth in a month. My Mom probably uses about .1GB She should be paying $10.

Ok, but let's say you live in the city and have to buy city water. What if your city decides to start charging $1/gal? What can you do? You can't get water from another provider.

I know internet isn't necessary for survival, but for some people who operate home businesses it is. If another provider isn't available in the area, someone else has to step in. Verizon is doing their best, but in the meantime the government has to do something when cable companies like TWC have monopolies.

I propose to let them do the caps, but only in areas where another provider is available. We'll see how long their plans last then, haha. They'd switch back to their old pricing structure within a week.

The thing is, as Eric Massa mentions, some communities can get ONLY Time Warner cable, or they can switch to dial up. Dial-up means renting out a second phone line and/or having to also get Vonage so that you can run a home phone, and overrall you will lose speed (won't even be fast enough to hit the 40 gig cap) and you will end up with as high of or higher bills.

Also, given how expensive laying the infrastructure is, it could be a while before someone stands up to compete vs time warner.

As long as this idiot can legislate unlimited bandwidth we're all set. I hope he move on to requiring 500mpg cars! That would help.

They expect us to watch videos, play games, buy movies, videoconference, buy books, tweet, and blog as much as we can, yet they cap how much we can actually do. Thank goodness a government official is doing something about it.

How can one charge more for something that isn't theirs to sell. The only thing they have to offer is bandwidth. If you offer faster access, and better service by all means charge more.

Example if TWC is charging me more because I download a ISO from Microsoft then Microsoft should turn around and sue TWC for making a profit off of their property. That is like putting a sales tax on bytes.