Capped Internet Connections – Page 2

For the Lighter Internet User

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.

Frontier Internet Users Beware! Your Connection is Capped!

OK, so the local news media really needs to get up to speed on this one. The Consumerist is reporting that Frontier Internet is capping its users’ downloads at 5Gb per month. After that, they now say they reserve the right to either cancel the account or charge a whopping $10.80 a gigabyte in overage charges! Best of all, they’re calling the first five gigabytes their “Free 5GB of internet usage.” Really? I thought you had to pay for it. Check their Acceptable Use Policy for more details on the new, quietly introduced, policy.

You might want to consider this before downloading your next movie from NetFlix.com, eh? And lest we forget, Frontier also charges you $4 for the modem even if you use your own and locks you into a multi-year contract. I’m not saying TW is any bed of roses, but damn, people.