This is a reality people. We have been broadcasting every... single... night... and have not missed a day in over 9 months. But this may change!!! Why? Becuase Time Warner is about to fuck us. Broadcasting from Austin is about to get way way more expensive.READ
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Last week, Time Warner Cable announced Phase 2 of its new broadband pricing model, a tiered billing system that would charge internet users based on their monthly consumption. The company will soon begin metered pricing in four cities: Greensboro, NC; Austin and San Antonio, TX; and my current hometown, Rochester, NY.Time Warner has specifically targeted Austin because of our lack of options. The only other way to get internet around here is ATT DSL, which is not good enough for us. This doesn't just hurt our broadcasting though. I recently signed up for Netflix to use the instant streaming. I watch nearly a movie a day. Now what? I have to stop using Netflix?
Here's how Time Warner's new pricing model works. Each household chooses one of five cap levels, ranging from 5 GB/month to 100 GB/month. Pricing resembles that of cell phone plans: Those who use the most broadband pay the highest amount and those who exceed their allotment are charged a fee—in this case, $1 for every excess GB.
What about downloadable games? Does this mean it isn't practical for people to download large game files like GTA: Lost and the Damned? What about Steam users? How is ON LIVE supposed to work in this future?
They are trying to keep the free spread of information from the people. The slippery slope has begun and the MAN will take away internet all together. We are entering dark times!
How to help? Spread the word/hate!!!
You could also all call people at Verizon. Austin has no Verizon FiOS options either.
Brad
23 comments:
Damn Time Warner. Let them burn in hell. Hopefully this doesn't start spreading to quickly.
I have ATT DSL, its really not that bad. I have 3.0MB per second download speed and download games all the time. However, you constantly have to bitch at ATT to them to set the downloads speeds at what they are supposed to. I have 300/kbs right now, but its supposed to be at 3.0mb/s. MY friend got them to set it at 8.0mb/s and was downloading 12 GB games in under 30 minutes. However if you don't want to deal with big corporations trying to cheap you out, just stay with Time Warner.
Seriously though, Time Warner is about to deliver an ultimate buttraping.
People must take action, everybody must, from the money grubbers.
Brad, you might want to take a closer look at your contract with Time Warner. Unless there are provisions in there allowing for unilateral changes to material terms of your contract (like the amount of product being offered) this test run will have no affect on current contracts.
I suspect that what they mean by a "3 month grace period" is there is a 3 month period in which a person could still agree to the terms you yourself signed up with.
Now, when your contract runs you and you need to renew it, you'd have a problem since Time Warner would only be offering the capped plans. But until that happens you should be just fine.
I live in ontario, canada. The best internet service you can get here is rogers..They throttle your internet if it is uploading too much so streaming is screwed. You get a cap of only 60gb/month even with the second highest service (highest is 75gb/month) and your speeds are 4mb/200kb. Every gb over your limit is an extra 2 dollars with a limit of 25. I believe they are screwing us over though. In a month of normal usage I download about 40gb in stuff but they say I use 80gb...its because of torrenting aswell. They dont just throttle torrents they also jack up its bandwidth usage. Also it is 49.99 a month for this service but after the school work I torrent (program files and such for programming) I am at 74.99 because I am about 20gb over the limit apparently.
In the past year the canadian government passed a bill that allows "traffic shaping" so everything I described above is allowed and done by all internet companies. It is complete bs.
Rogers did this to us. I always go over the monthly limit, and there isn`t even an unlimited option.
Fuck,I could be considered living in Greensboro.
A large number of consumers won't really care because they don't use the internet for anything that consumes a large amount bandwidth. However, gamers and anyone who uses streaming services such as Netflix is pretty much fucked.
You guys at 4PP are essentially going to get bitchslapped the hardest which is really unfair. Between Brad's use of Netflix, the broadcast, podcasts and downloads of demos and games you guys are pretty much fucked if this plays out.
However, Time Warner Cable is essentially relying on a couple of key factors, no competition (in given areas) and customer ignorance being the primary of the two. By picking the four cities that they did, they may essentially have painted a large bullseye for Verizon, should Verizon acknowledge that entering the markets presented they would easily be able to outperform Time Warner, they will bring FiOS to those areas. Essentially we just have to make it clear that consumers aren't as uninformed as to continue their service with Time Warner Cable.
In the age of Information Technology and Fast Streaming, taking a step back and capping bandwidth is going to be a major blow. I do think that this is a result of ISP's being unwilling to improve their services as they are not required to, there really isn't much competition in the West.
You will have our support when this plays out.
Comcast did something like this last year for the Chicago-land area. It's not as bad as the # per month packages, but there is still a cap. I hoping this isn't a sign of what Comcast is planning on doing.
Like you guys, no other competitors besides ATT. :(
For the person who said their speeds should be 3 Mb/s but are 300 KB/s, that is about right, check the conversion for it. They advertise in bits but you connection is usually shown in bytes. (8 bits = 1 Byte)
I have Time Warner for my ISP and live dangerously close to Greensboro. The second they try to pull this shit everywhere I will drop them in a second for an uncapped service. My router will track my data transfer for me and I use around 100 GB a month, up/down combined (also a heavy netflix user). I wouldn't be surprised if 4PP uses nearly 200 GB or more a month. And that could get pricey.
I thought we here in the UK had it bad, but it seems that Time Warner cable have gone above and beyond British Telecommunications and other major broadband suppliers.
Considering that the U.S dislikes monopolisation, I am surprised at the lack of competition in your area.
Here's hoping that there is some resolution to this crisis, it would truly be a shame to have to cut back on the shows. At least the community will rally to support you guys any way they can!
Try sending complaints here realideas@twcable.com
I figured it may affect the broadcast once I saw they were doing this in Austin as well. ..I also live by Greensboro, sadly.
This can't possibly work, though. No way. In this day and age, everyone watches streaming flicks and games. Hell, many are ready to drop Time Warner for this. I can't imagine Steam, Microsoft, and OnLive, etc, sitting by idly with this, either.
Ha, and in a sad attempt to try to reconcile with the costumers: http://kotaku.com/5206908/time-warner-revises-plans-to-charge-for-internet-bandwith-usage
What Brian said sounds interesting. Definitely something you should check up on.
To play devil's advocate for a moment, perhaps this plan isn't so bad from a public policy perspective. Now, I imagine that people who use a ton of bandwith slow things down for other users (correct?). If that assumption is true, high-bandwith users are free-riding on low-bandwith users since everyone pays a flat rate (the same thing works with gym memberships --- fatasses like me "pay" for frequent gym users).
Under this plan, that goes away. Instead of being able to free-ride on everyone else, high-bandwith users will have to pay extra. I imagine the only ones willing to pay for the higher tiers will be businesses. That means that bandwith usage will go down and therefore, make the internet faster for everyone.
I know this doesn't help you. All I can say is --- time to start making money from this thing. At the very least the regular viewers could start donating to help pay the costs of subscribing to the higher tier.
--- pally
ITS COMPLAINING TIME!
http://kotaku.com/5206908/time-warner-revises-plans-to-charge-for-internet-bandwith-usage
still shit but there you go ;x
Fuck that! If Time Warner tires that shit here in Albany, NY. I'm switching to Verizon Wireless Cards, which are easy enough to break into and mess with to get free internet anywhere.
(don't say I told you though)
Like I said in chat; I'm willing to donate. Once you guys know it's your only option and it has to be done... I'm willing to donate you keep you up every night. Just keep us posted.
BTW: It's nice they revised it. Mostly this part: "Overage charges will be capped at $75 per month", but yes, still ridiculous. I'm still offering to donate that 75, though. And I'm pretty sure plenty of other chatters would be willing to donate a dollar a month or something simple like that. We should be donating, anyhow. You guys deserve it.
-Oreo
I use ATT DSL and it is pretty good. Time Warner changed up their plan yesterday. If you purchase their turbo package for $75, your overage fee will be capped at $75, costing you $150 a month for unlimited bandwidth.
Can't you use a Business account or something?
Or Broadcasters account so you get uncapped usage?
//Rad.
I'm a viewer/listener of about 2-3 months, and have been enjoying your shows/streams VERY much. It sucks that I can only ever catch you when i'm going to sleep as I live in England. Hearing this news is upsetting, I really hope this doesn't end up having an effect on your broadcasting, but if it does I will be open to donating towards 4PP in order to keep you guys going.
Keep up the good work guys!
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