Pay Per Megabyte Internet Services
Davy on Jan 17 2008 at 4:46 pm | Filed under: Technology, The Internet
In a world where we have to put up with metered cellular phone minute usage and worry about overage charges on a monthly basis, we’re about to be introduced to a whole new set of headaches and stress. I’m talking about metered internet services. Time Warner has confirmed that it will be rolling out a trial internet service on its RoadRunner brand in Beaumont, Texas. Upon the trial’s completion, Time Warner will have plans to roll out to the rest of the nation.
The Problem
The main motivation behind this pay-per-megabyte program, according to Time Warner, is that 5% of its customers are using at least 50% of the bandwidth. To level the playing field a bit and penalize the heavy users, Time Warner decides to introduce this overage charge plan. Basically, it is supposed to punish power users whereas the casual consumers will not notice the difference. Yeah right, I’m holding my judgment on this because this whole internet overage charge notion seems like a corporate money-grab fest to me.
What’s Next? Family Plan? Unlimited In-Network Instant Messaging?
It is amazing how a few desperate executives are trying to brainstorm new ideas to screw the unsuspecting consumer. How long are we going to sit idly by and let them exploit this? By this I mean finding whatever ways they can to make an extra buck off of their customers. We’re being farmed…oink oink! moo moo!
I agree with you completely, this is ridiculous. My DSL is currently hooked up to stay on through my router so that any user in the household can access the internet at will without having to worry about logging in and out. This will change that dramatically as we’ll have to limit our usage to not run up the bill. If they decide to move to this — I will just pay the $50/month fee to have wireless internet on the go with SprintPCS to rid myself of this hassle.