Time Warner Holding Back Super-fast Broadband?

By Marcus Yam
published

The saga continues.

Time Warner Cable's consumption-based billing trials brought along with it testing of the new DOCSIS 3.0 system.

DOCSIS 3.0 promises much improved throughput speeds and Time Warner Cable was set to roll out a 50 Mbps service in conjunction with the upgraded standard.

While details are still sketchy, it seems that the whole speed upgrade and consumption-based billing were tied more closely together than previously let on. Now that the tiered system is being shelved, so too might be the rollout of the newer technology.

Alex Dudly, VP of PR at TWC, posted a response on his Twitter to a question from GigaOM’s Stacey Higginbotham saying that the DOCSIS 3.0 was scheduled as part of consumption-based billing trial, but that consumer backlash has changed the company’s plans.

GigaOM got clarification from TWC, who said it is now “reevaluating whether or not the trial cities are among those places” scheduled for DOCSIS 3.0 rollouts.

The cities originally targeted for TWC’s trials were San Antonio and Austin, Texas; Greensboro, N.C., and Rochester N.Y.

What’s likely to be happening right now is that TWC has gone back to the drawing board on how to re-approach this most delicate situation. Hopefully we’ll get more detailed explanations outside of tweets constrained to no more than 140 characters.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
49 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ColMirage
    Sure glad I don't have to deal with them.
    Reply
  • Blessedman
    No doubt! This has got to be the most backwards company in the communications business i have ever seen. Lets take a page from GM's playbook on how to run a company!!
    Reply
  • DarkMatterBT
    Well I for one see this as their way to get back at customers for their backlash of their consumption based plans. I say let there current system stand, let them watch there competition upgrade there systems and speeds, and let them see there customer base move to other options. This is nothing more than a corporate hissy fit in progress. Got my vote for one of the worst run companies ever, and thats saying a lot in the current economic situation were all witnessing.
    Reply
  • gwellin
    Well the good news of holding back on super fast broadband connection is we now wont hit our bandwidth cap within the first 15 minutes each month.
    Reply
  • greenskye
    I've never understood the "faster speeds, but less data" approach.

    Old way: You run a marathon on foot but you get to go 26 miles.
    New way: They give you a ferrari but you're only allowed to drive it 100 meters.

    How does that make sense??
    Reply
  • So give me a 50mb/sec internet speed but limit my traffic to 10-50GB??? SO I can reach my limit faster? Really guys, I do not understand the internet companies.
    Reply
  • jgoette
    Is this some kind of "punishment" to the customer for not accepting the tier plan?
    Reply
  • marsax73
    greenskyeI've never understood the "faster speeds, but less data" approach.Old way: You run a marathon on foot but you get to go 26 miles.New way: They give you a ferrari but you're only allowed to drive it 100 meters.How does that make sense??
    I say let those who want the superfast connections just pay more and let those who are happy with their current speeds to pay no more than $35-40 a month. I mean it's competitive with other countries. I don't need anymore than 12 Mbs downloads. I'm completely fine with that but NO bandwidth limitations.

    But what do I know...I'm only a consumer
    Reply
  • thousands of TW customers jumped ship when they announced the tier program. Anyone still on TW and has somewhere else to go needs to go ahead and cancel their subscription and change companies. If more people would continue this action then TW would be forced to look at themselves and stop this silly game that they are playing.
    If the numbers leaving TW start reaching into the tens of thousands then you are removing million$ per month from TW and that is the type of action that is needed.
    Reply
  • crisisavatar
    I really hope they get destroyed for all this abuse.
    Reply