Rachel Barnhart posts on the 13WHAM.com blogs that she’s going all AT&T wireless for her Internet connection. Of course, this plan is really only valid for those of you who don’t use a lot of bandwidth, but that’s a awful lot of people.
So, I wonder how this affected the calculus at TW, if at all? Light users of the Internet don’t really need Time Warner at all anymore. If they can afford a good smart phone and a laptop, they can have their Internet connection wherever they go. And keep in mind: fifty percent of households in America don’t even have a computer, so we’re talking about the affluent half of the country even using the Internet.
So, unless you’re a web designer or a gamer or other such high-volume user, why would you even bother with a home connection? Seems like tethered Internet may soon become the vinyl record of networking in a few years: prized by a few but otherwise untouched. With this in mind, does it really pay to piss off the only customer base you’ll have in five years?
Seems like Time Warner’s just begging for someone to come along and offer a better solution.
2 replies on “For the Lighter Internet User”
I have a tethered Verizon connect for work that I use on occasion. It’s no replacement for wired Internet for me, but I understand why others might like it.
WiMax and other wireless tech will allow providers to compete with TWC in the near future, and TWC is inviting them to come to Rochester and other similar markets. I hope we see some of that kind of competition soon.
Well, exactly my point: for those of us who care about this kind of thing, this is a bad sign for the future and thus an impetus to competition – there’s absolutely NO reason to believe that just because you own pipes that we use today that there won’t be a viable high–capacity alternative in the near future. For everyone else, convenience alone is more than enough reason to ditch TW.
Hell, if I had the cash, I’d ditch TW for everything other than web design use. . . and even a lot of that can be done sans TW. My wife, for example, would be perfectly happy with T–Mobile, which can be used for free in lots of locations.