Time Warner Cable's broadband pricing caps explained for gamers

Posted Apr 8th 2009 8:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Biz, Culture, Downloads

Big Download has talked at length about the growing trend of ISPs putting some kind of broadband cap limits for Internet users and how that might affect the game industry (check out our feature article on the subject for more). One of the ISPs we mentioned is Time Warner Cable who at the time of our last feature article on the subject was testing a pricing tier based on the amount of bandwidth that was used in Beaumont, Texas.

Apparently that testing was "successful" enough that Time Warner Cable will be expanding that kind of pricing in four more of its markets (Austin and San Antonio, Texas, Greensboro, NC and Rochester, NY). According to Gamers With Jobs, Time Warner Cable will charge customers $54.96 a month for just a 40 GB broadband cap. Considering that some games are several gigs in size that will certainly affect gamers (there's also a 100 GB cap tier but no pricing on that has been revealed). The company will charge customers $1 extra for every gigabyte of extra bandwidth they use.

Time Warner Cable claims that in their earlier test in Beaumont, Texas only 14 percent of their customers exceeded their cap limit. Of course that doesn't mean other markets (particularly Austin, home to a large number of game developers) would have the same percentage of users go over those caps. As one might expect there's been a lot of chatter on the Internet against these kinds of prices. The web site Stopthecap.com is reporting that Eric Massa who represents New York's 29th District in the US House of Representatives, is drafting a bill to prohibit this kind of broadband cap. Rep. Massa is quoted as saying, "With limited choices in broadband providers, and virtual monopolies in many market areas, I view this as nothing more than a large corporation making a move to force customers into paying more money."

Tags: broadband-caps, broadband-speed, time-warner-cable

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

I use more than 100GB in a few days when I do a reinstall and don't back-up my Steam folder. Really hope this doesn't proliferate. I'm on Verizon FiOS so I feel safe for now, but it's horrible for the web. Holds us back.Posted at 9:03AM on Apr 8th 2009 by Sokkratez

I'm an Austin TWC subscriber. I doubt I've ever hit 100GB in a month, but probably have surpassed 40GB many times. Adios, Time Warner! Kiss my $150/mo goodbye (tv + internet).Posted at 9:59AM on Apr 8th 2009 by TwoLaneBlackTop

As a non US resident I've been wondering how fast is broadband anyway?Posted at 10:09AM on Apr 8th 2009 by mko

@ MKO Mine is 15 mB/s (Charter)Posted at 10:48AM on Apr 8th 2009 by Lennoko

Beaumont was my home town haha.

Anyway, I love that "only 14 percent of their customers exceeded their cap limit" line, which another way to say that is ONE IN EVERY SIX PEOPLE. So that ratio would kill six guys playing Halo 3 for instance. You know one in six is too small for gamers with friends. Someone you know will be affected by this.

And let's not forget Netflix, Netflix over 360, PS3 movie downloads, Nintendo's video service, OnLive, and just about every "DRM" style protection that uses your internet for verification (Steam comes to mind...). Everything will get harder to manage with these bandwidth limits.

I never though I would say that COMCAST is leading the way with a 250 GB cap is more flexible, and more to a customer's needs.

GFWL - Things just got MORE SCREWED for any involved gamer.
Posted at 10:52AM on Apr 8th 2009 by SidearmS

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see any caps AT ALL. No matter what, this is a major infringement on the freedoms we've all come to know and enjoy on the internet. But if it is inevitable, Comcast's 250gb limit seems like the best compromise IMO. It's going to keep hardcore pirate scum at bay but would be extremely rare to see it effect legit users. TW's ~40gb plan is simply ludicrous though! Downloading GTA4 PC off of Steam was like 15+ GB alone! My 200 song / mo eMusic plan adds up to ~1gb. YouTube videos can add up really quick. Multiplayer gaming sucks down bandwidth. It also puts the likes of Netflix streaming and OnLive pretty much completely out of business. I'm REALLY hoping that TW sees the light and backs off such unacceptable caps. If not, I will gladly jump ship to a competitor.

...bysmittyPosted at 12:06PM on Apr 8th 2009 by bysmitty