time warner

I wanted to put this in my last post, but decided it merited its' own.

A big story on the tech front this week was news that next year we will see internet prices go up because of streaming movie services like NetFlix and HuLu.

Time Warner Cable Inc. and U.S. pay- TV companies, weighing how to profit from surging Internet demand spurred by Netflix Inc. and Hulu, are on the verge of instituting new fees on Web-access customers who use the most.

At least one major cable operator will institute so-called usage-based billing next year, predicts Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. He said Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc. or Time Warner Cable may be first to charge Web-access customers for the amount of data they consume, not just transmission speed.

“As more video shifts to the Web, the cable operators will inevitably align their pricing models,” Moffett said in an interview. “With the right usage-based pricing plan, they can embrace the transition instead of resisting it.”

Welcome to capitalism fail. Time Warner is the nation's 4th largest cable operator. Comcast is first. When it comes to the internet Comcast falls to 2nd place and Time Warner moves up to 3rd place.

It looks like Time Warner will be testing a new system for billing their broadband internet subscribers:

Time Warner Cable will try selling consumers broadband service based on how much bandwidth they use, a move that could turn the home broadband pricing model in the U.S. on its head.

In a trial planned for later this year in Beaumont, Texas, the service provider will offer four tiers of service at different prices. Customers who used more bandwidth would pay more.

The details of the tiered pricing plan haven't yet been set, according to Time Warner spokesman Alex Dudley. The offer will only go out to new customers, he said.

While I agree there are those that abuse the system, there are also innocent people out there who may go over their limit for a month. Take the month of December when children and a lot of parents are home on vacation. Internet surfing rises. So everyone gets into YouTube during those few weeks and that pushes them over their quota.