NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: NYT: Differing views on Time Warner's Bandwidth Cap Experiment
You need to read more critically. The $30/movie claim is like a $40,000 dollar iPhone bill. Possible, but utterly ridiculous.
Yeah, well, a surcharge of $1 for a movie will probably work out OK for most people. But if it's $1/gig and a HD movie is 4 or 5 gig, then you're looking at paying $5 for a movie. That's almost as expensive as going to the theater.
And it still violates the "no surprises" rule. They really need to have some sort of popup or something that warns the customer, "hey, you're over your limit, this is going to cost you more money."
The sky didn't fall here, and it didn't start imposing 5gb/mo caps on people who torrent all day. As you point out below, people would jump ship if the price point wasn't right -- so TW will get this right.
I sure hope so.
What this is, from a NN perspective, is a whole lot better than the alternative of fuzzy caps and restricted service. Plus, if I can get rid of that TB/mo kid down the block (who should really have a t1 or better dedicated line), I'm going to be a happy subscriber.
Yeah, overall I agree with you. A scheme that encourages the heavy users to buy a higher tier is, overall, a good thing.
As for 'slowing down' heavy users, thats not very transparent, and borders on false advertising.
If the slowdown is based on a) endpoints b) how much bandwidth the user has consumed this month then it meets _my_ definition of transparency. The idea is that the ISP shouldn't care about what's _in_ the bits, only about _how many_ bits are being transmitted.
And if it's based on a published bandwidth limit, then it certainly isn't false advertising. The system used by some ISPs now is false advertising: they say you can have "all you can eat", but if you eat more than they think you should, they threaten to shut you down.
It's also bad for the ISPs because when said power users' internet starts going slow they will 1) speed test 2) call the isp and bitch
And be told that they've used all the bits they paid for, and offered the opportunity to buy more. Which is how it should work.
3) tell everyone how slow and crappy the service is. Not a great way to win customers, and not a great experience for the user.
Is a $10 surcharge on your bill for the two movies you watched over the limit going to be a great experience?
I can't see why so many people would have a problem with paying a fair price and getting what they pay for.
No problem with that. What I (and others) have a problem with is when we get a big surprise at the end of the month.
One thing is clear though, TW should fire it's PR department because they really dropped the ball on this one.
Yep!