Time Warner and metered billing

Posted on | April 26, 2009 | No Comments

Much of what we talk about is related to customer service.  We’re big fans of it here.  Well Time Warner decided that customers wanted less and would want to pay a whole lot more for it.  They decided, in very uncompetitive markets, they’d give it a shot.  They set a low monthly limit on how much you could download and then charged you a few bucks for each gig you went over that limit.  Wow, that sounds great to me.

Over at DSLReports.com they love to wade through the PR doublespeak and marketing FUD.  Basically, it’s a crock.  They went into markets where Verizon wasn’t in and rolled this out.  Well Time Warner is taking a beating and rightfully so.  They sell a product that is getting cheaper and cheaper to deliver and unlike providing water and power, doesn’t get exponentially or even linearly more expensive to provide as demand increases.  What is funny is while Time Warner was saying customers wanted this, they didn’t do it in markets served by Verizon Fios.  If you follow broadband the cable companies called cable internet the Cadillac of broadband and DSL the Hyundai.  Well if cable is the Cadillac of broadband Fios is the F-22 Raptor of broadband.  It’s fiber optic cable jacked into your house for blistering speeds.  It is the reason I want Verizon to buy Qwest and convert the Qwest footprint, specifically the 80134 zip code, and drop some fiber goodness on us.

Well Time Warner has taken note, or at least said they have, and have rolled back their push towards metered billing.  If you’re a Time Warner customer, let them know your disapproval and if you have an alternative, let your wallet do the talking.  I for one use Qwest DSL and get a great 7 Meg connection for $40 a month.  It’s rock solid, no 7pm slow down, and no money going to the Comcast.  I’ll take the Hyundai over the Caddy any day.  Sure I don’t get 15 Mbps for the first 12 seconds of a download but I get 7 megs almost all the time.

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