NY Congressman Eric Massa drafting legislation to prohibit metered broadband
Massa slams Time Warner's decision to implement bandwidth caps as an "outrageous, job killing initiative."
Time Warner Cable has been experimenting in certain markets with tiered broadband bandwidth plans and were apparently tickled enough over how much money they could fleece from customers going over their monthly caps that they recently expanded the trials to other markets, including Rochester, NY. The new pricing scheme has customers understandably up in arms in Greensboro, NC and elsewhere; with the most expensive plan maxing out at a paltry 40 GB monthly cap, the Time Warner-flavored broadband metering has serious detrimental implications for competing services in the growing web video market, numerous cloud computing services, online gaming, and even TWC's own internet phone plans which amazingly are not even exempt from the cap.
The implications are so broad, especially considering the lack of competition in the broadband market in many areas, that New York Congressperson Eric Massa announced yesterday he'll be leading the charge to prohibit metered broadband, citing issues as deep as the First Amendment. Calling the initiative "job killing," Massa said of the cap plan, "just at a time when access to information is driving our economic recovery, Time Warner is moving to stagnate the 21st Century technology needed to rebuild America." Stopthecap.com reports confirmation from Massa's office that a bill is in the works to prohibit this kind of broadband capping.
Time Warner says the payment scheme is necessary to cover "infrastructure costs" but, like Ars Technica, I'm deeply skeptical. As a customer of TW broadband in the neighboring Syracuse market, and as someone who works from home all day via the internet, I'm certainly not unbiased on this issue. I'm eyeing the faster speed and far more reasonable 250 GB monthly cap of provider Comcast — which is sadly all that I can do because they don't serve my market. Because I'm currently living in a relatively rural area of upstate NY, my only alternative to Time Warner wouldn't even include DSL; it would be satellite, which is no alternative at all.
Beyond the personal implications and the impact on broadband customers and internet innovation in general, Time Warner's meager top cap reeks of monopolistic greed. I for one am happy to see a political representative take a stand against egregious broadband metering, and we'll be keeping an eye on Massa's legislation as it unfolds.
This story around the web:
- Trusted sources:
Congressman Eric Massa : Press Releases &… [massa.house.gov]
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Congressman: Metered Broadband Kills Jobs… [GigaOM]
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Stop the Cap! · BREAKING NEWS: Rep.… [stopthecap.com]
Get more information on topics relating to this story:
- Related company news:
- Time Warner Cable
- Related glossary terms:
- cloud computing, IPTV, Internet, DSL, Broadband
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Comments (2)
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Trae
(3:19 PM on Wed Apr 8, 2009)
I have to agree that capping broadband is a greedy power grab by TWC, and should be stopped. But I also don't think that we should have congress coming in and banning the process. This should open doors to numerous other companies to come into these areas with uncapped broadband and pull TWC's market share. But I might have too much wishful thinking.
Cable companies have had a surprising amount of luxury for a long time in "monopolizing" the market in a location-by-location basis. Only now in larger areas is this going away. More than this cap on broadband, I'd like so see some legislation that makes it easier for multiple cable companies to service an area...
mitchel (1:00 AM on Thu Oct 8, 2009)
New York Representative Eric Massa came out against metered billing yesterday, issuing a statement that called out Time Warner for limiting consumers' access to broadband. Massa, who represents an area near Rochester, N.Y., watch winder where Time Warner has expanded its metered billing trials, seems to agree with my assessment that the Internet is critical to both individuals and economic advancement for the country. He even throws in the idea that this issue raises First Ammendment rights, since the web is such an "essential communications tool. citizen watches " Since local municipalities have little direct power in this fight, I'm glad to see some national politicians take the helm. swiss watches Now if only Massa were on a Committee that oversaw telecommunications.