Time Warner's Unlimited Plan: $150, Still Terrible
Due to the massive amount of backlash from the press as well as customers, Time Warner Cable at the end of last week introduced essentially what is the company's unlimited download plan, for $150 per month.
In actuality, what the plan is of course is TWC's 100 GB $75 per month plan, which the company increased from a lower cap not too long after it realized people were becoming irate with its cap proposals. If you pick the $75 package, the overage charge is limited at $1 per gigabyte up to $75. This essentially gives you unlimited downloading for $150.
However, even with the limit on the overage charges, TWC's price structure is still very much out of line with the rest of the industry, including those of its direct competitors in the cable space. Outside of the cable space, TWC's price is even more ludicrous.
Consider Verizon's FIOS service, which is a direct fiber line to your home. At it's cheapest package, Verizon offers a 10 mbit/2 mbit down/up connection for $49.99 without any download cap. This package is already just as fast as TWC's "turbo" package. Customers can choose to go all the way up to Verizon's $144.99 package which gives the customer a whopping 50 mbit/20 mbit connection--far superior to anything TWC has to offer.
TWC does have a cable service based on Docsis 3.0, delivering speeds of 50 mbit/sec. download and 5 mbit/sec. uploads. The service is $99 per month but TWC did not specify whether the service comes with a download cap. If the Docsis 3.0 plan comes with a cap equivalent to its Turbo service, the price would be $174/month--still pricier than Verizon's faster FIOS service and more costly than an equivalent $139/month service from Comcast.
TWC says that its restructured, and more expensive pricing schemes are due to increasing network support costs as users download more. Despite this claim made by TWC's COO Landel Hobbs, TWC's financial reports for 2008 revealed that its costs declined even though its customer based increased by 10-percent.
If TWC executives can't agree with their company's own reports, what makes them think that customers will agree? This is why TWC has decided to roll out its new plans first in areas where it is the majority or only provider of broadband service.
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Image: courtesy of Wired.com/Dennis Crothers --source, TWC.
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m3kt3k 150BUCKS are they fucking insane. Im on comcast and if they told me that hello Fairpoint.Reply -
bourgeoisdude Wow. I wish Verizon would hurry up and get FIOS ready in my area. Pricing for RoadRunner is already pretty high.Reply -
jsloan If this nonsense is not stopped now we will all end up with caps.Reply
What I think would work is if a large number of Time Warner's switch providers.
At this point FIOS is a better and less exprensive option.
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rodney_ws I think Verizon gets it... they want to sell you a pipe. TW wants to sell you services. Just give me the damned pipe and let me do what I want with it. I hope TW fails miserably in what they're attempting to do.Reply -
akhodjaev One bad sheep ruins the whole flock of sheep.Reply
I hope this virus will not spread... Time to let go TWC.
Instead of increasing capacity, it is cutting the usage, and we are moving to digital on everything. Stupid -
avericia I hope TW looses as much business as possible so other companies don't follow in their greedy, a hole footsteps!!!Reply
Increase cost and lie saying your expenses went up while your financial records say the opposite nice job idiots. -
fausto freaking crazy. they just after people's money. there is no increase in cost. it is a known fact that in technology costs decrease over time.Reply
f u time warner -
hellwig FTC, FCC, FDA, all these gonvernment agencies are useless.Reply
We split up the Tel-Co monopolies years ago, but that just created a bunch of regional monopolies. Sure, there are 10 different cable companies, but only one in any given area. Cable companies put caps on internet downloads (but I can watch as much high-def on-demand TV as I can pay for). Even cell-phone providers fix prices (20-cents for an SMS message?). Add in the failed banks and insurance companies and endless poisoned food recalls, all of this overlooked by the government agencies created to supposedly look-out for the consumer.
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mustwarnothers If their revenue is UP and their costs are DOWN how the fuck can they justify that the current pricing model isn't working?Reply
I see a bunch of devils advocates roaming these comments about infrastructure this and operating cost that.
There is ZERO reason why the consumer deserves to be gouged to hell like this.
I can't wait until my "1 year, all three services for 29.95 each, no contract" plan is done with.
FiOS just arrived a few months ago.
Time Warner, I'll let you eat handfuls of my feces for 29.95 a month, but if you go over the usage of 20 handfuls per month, It's going to be an extra 2 dollars per handful.