Internet Capping – How It Affects And Effects You
I have previously written about Charter and its new bandwidth caps and it looks like the bandwagon is starting to roll.
This is about the new ‘fad’ that is happening with Big Media companies and their attempt to thwart piracy of their content. Since big media can’t directly go after pirates, they’ve decided to go after to after the group of people who they think can’t do a thing about it: anyone using an Internet connection.
You, me, us.
If you haven’t heard, the big issue on net neutrality is about ISPs creating tiers of net connections for both businesses and consumers. Tiers allow companies to effectively charge you more for your downloading habits rather than the speed you’re after. Net connection services have always been mainly about speed for the consumer. Want to subscribe to a faster service? Pay more. It was simple and effective. Without net neutrality, ISPs not only charges for speed packages but also for how much you download.
What is net neutrality? Let’s hear it from Google:
Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days… Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.
Here’s some more logical math for your consumption: consider TWC’s 40 GB tier. It costs a whopping $54.90 per month. If you only watch 7.25 hours a video per week, via Netflix, your Xbox 360, or any other service, you will be slapped with a bill of $200 at the end of the month. Worried? “Don’t worry,” says TWC’s COO Landel Hobbs.
“Overage charges will be capped at $75 per month. That means that for $150 per month customers could have virtually unlimited usage at Turbo speeds,” says Hobbs.
That’s an incredible deal if I ever saw one. Right? (sarcasm).
YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and many other online video services are becoming more and more popular. Arguably, Netflix is putting Blockbuster out of business. Hulu, iTunes, and others like it are a major threat as well. Tiered plans however, ensure that you only get to watch a limited number of videos per month as well keep your downloading of videos to a minimum. Why have a really fast net connection to enjoy online media services and downloading when in reality, you can’t?
What will this new capping do?
It ensures several things:
- You will be more hesitant to download movies and music legitimately–even though you’ve paid to watch/listen.
- You will watch more cable TV (so you can see all those great ads).
- You will accidentally pay more for less.
- Pirates get a whacking.
Big media and ISPs can’t effectively eliminate piracy by going after pirates directly or stop online video and music streaming services. So they have a better plan now: go after everyone.
Don’t watch streaming video and just a serious gamer? This will affect you too. If you like downloading demos, or have to update your favorite games with big updates and patches, prepare to have those eat a big chunk of your monthly download allowance. This is something every gamer has essentially been doing for free, but not for much longer. Any gamer here using Steam? Oh boy…
If you purchase say, Call of Duty: World at War off of Steam, it’s over 6 GB. If you’re paying $29.95 for TWC’s 5 GB connection, expect to pay an overage fee for hitting your cap and for the extra gigabyte.
What can you do? A for-consumer organization called FreePress is over 500,000 people strong and offers an online petition you can send to your representative. It can be as easy as typing your name and address (It uses that to find your representative) and adding some text of your own. I encourage you to to send a letter. (You can view mine by clicking “More)
Thanks to Why Cable ISP Capping is the New DRM, and Suck [http://www.tomshardware.com]
My letter looks as follows:
Subject: Stop Time Warner Cable’s Internet Penalty
Dear [Decision Maker],
I urge you to join other representatives and call for an investigation of Time Warner Cable’s plans to impose an unfair penalty against Internet users.
Congress has made access to an affordable and free-flowing Internet a focus of our economic recovery. Time Warner Cable’s price-gouging “metering” plan penalizes consumers at a time when we need Internet access the most.
Congress must investigate Time Warner Cable’s anti-competitive practices before they become a nationwide problem.
They have a new plan. Since big media can’t directly go after pirates, they’ve decided to go after to after the group of people who they think can’t do a thing about it: anyone using an Internet connection.
You.
If you haven’t heard, the big issue on net neutrality is about ISPs creating tiers of net connections for both businesses and consumers. Tiers allow companies to effectively charge you more for your downloading habits rather than the speed you’re after. Net connection services have always been mainly about speed for the consumer. Want to subscribe to a faster service? Pay more. It was simple and effective. Without net neutrality, ISPs not only charges for speed packages but also for how much you download.
At the time, Verizon and others were very vocal about net neutrality, especially when the U.S. government and FCC were looking into the matter. Verizon and others made it clear that net neutrality was much ado about nothing.
Cable companies have a vested interest in protecting their business, which is providing TV and movie services to their millions of subscribers. The more online movie and music services that pop online, the more threat there is to their bread and butter. The only way cable providers can slow this process down or stop it, is to limit how much you’re able to download.
This week, TWC released a new set of tiered connection plans ranging from a ridiculous 1 GB per month plan to something TWC calls the 100 GB “super tier” plan. Super?
“We need a viable model to be able to support the infrastructure of the broadband business,” said Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt. Despite what Britt claimed, 2008 was actually a great year for TWC: 10-percent more subscribers, but operating costs didn’t go up. So what kind of math did Mr. Britt learn in school? Not the kind of math I learned; but that doesn’t matter since Britt had an annual comp of $16.2 million.
Here’s some more logical math for your consumption: consider TWC’s 40 GB tier. It costs a whopping $54.90 per month. If you only watch 7.25 hours a video per week, via Netflix, your Xbox 360, or any other service, you will be slapped with a bill of $200 at the end of the month. Worried? “Don’t worry,” says TWC’s COO Landel Hobbs.
YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and many other online video services are becoming more and more popular. Arguably, Netflix is putting Blockbuster out of business. Hulu, iTunes, and others like it are a major threat as well. Tiered plans however, ensure that you only get to watch a limited number of videos per month as well keep your downloading of videos to a minimum. Why have a really fast net connection to enjoy online media services and downloading when in reality, you can’t?
Sources: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/time-warner-cable-internet-drm,7530.html
Again, I urge you to join other representatives and call for an investigation of Time Warner Cable’s plans to impose an unfair penalty against Internet users.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]
