Ben Rubin

After protests from customers and politicians, on April 18, Time Warner Cable shelved its proposed tiered pricing plan. The company was going to test this plan on its internet customers in Rochester, Austin, San Antonio, and Greensboro. The plan had already been in testing since last year in Beaumont, Texas.

Typically, internet service providers (ISPs) charge customers a flat fee for unlimited internet access. Time Warner Cable proposed a four-tier plan that would charge customers $29.95 to $54.90 per month, whereby the fee was dependent upon data usage and connection speed. The ISP offered four cap levels of five, 10, 20, and 40 gigabytes of data. Customers would be charged one dollar for each gigabyte exceeding their plan’s cap.

Customers in the proposed testing areas opposed the plan and argued that the usage caps were set too low. The five-gigabytes usage cap would allow a user to watch about two streaming movies or TV shows per month before hitting the cap. Customers were worried that their accustomed day-to-day online activities would accumulate massive fees because they would go over their usage cap.

Kyle Shay, a second year Computer Science major, was so opposed to the plan that he protested against the cap at Time Warner’s headquarters earlier this month. Said Shay, “I think it’s unfair that some people would have to pay to access knowledge.”

As displeasure with the plan grew, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York voiced his opposition in a call to Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt. Shortly after the call, Schumer made an announcement at the Rochester Time Warner Cable building that the tiered pricing testing phase would be suspended.

Following the announcement, Britt released a statement that stressed the need for customer education as to the pricing plan. “We look forward to continuing to work with Senator Schumer, our customers, and all of the other interested parties … to ensure that informed decisions are made about the best way to continue to provide our customers with the level of service that they expect and deserve from Time Warner Cable.”

Though it seemed to appease Senator Schumer, Time Warner’s promise to reexamine its pricing plan doesn’t sit well with everyone. “I think charging based on how much they use is something that they shouldn’t do, ever. I think that charging based on how much you use is ridiculous. If it were my decision, I’d leave it as it is now. They are making profits with the plan that they currently have. They just want more money,” Shay said.

Ben Rubin

Tony Folenta, a second year New Media Design major, thinks that Time Warner should take a different route. “They could introduce a cheap plan for low-bandwidth users, like 15 dollars a month for five gigabytes or something, while keeping the unlimited plans,” Folenta said.

In an announcement on their website, Time Warner discussed potential changes to the pricing plan, in addition to educating their customers about the plan. Currently, there are no concrete plans to revise the tiered plan or to create a new plan. Time Warner’s main focus is educating the public about the plan. The company still believes that the tiered pricing plan is the best course of action. To reinforce this position, Time Warner is creating a website on which customers can monitor their internet usage in hopes that it will help people gauge how much bandwidth they actually use.