time-warner-cable posts

With the recent blow-up of Time Warner Cable's plans to test out a new capped-pricing program for its broadband Internet service (those plans have been put on hold following a public outcry) another cable Internet service provider has just announced plans to offer the fastest consumer Internet service in the US so far.

Cablevision will offer Optimum Online Ultra, their new broadband Internet pack, for its customers beginning on May 11. The speeds for the service will go up to 101 Mbps for download (15 mpbs for uploads) for the very resonable price of $99.95 per month. Previously Charter had the top speed record with 60 mbps. Not only that but Cablevision does not have any download caps on its service which certainly makes arguements for such caps by Time Warner Cable seem, well, silly. Cablevision mostly serves the New York City area with 3 million customers.

For the past couple of weeks, consumers in general and PC gamers in particular, have protested the proposed plans by Time Warner Cable to launch a new pricing plan for its Internet broadband services. The cable company was planning to launch a test in several of its cities that would have put in extra charges for consumers if they went over certain caps in their broadband usage.

A true grass roots campaign started to protest the pricing proposal, saying such a move would have a massive effect on innovation (not to mention creating an issue for people who like to download large legit files like games). The bad publicity has caused Time Warner Cable to back off on plans. Wired reports that the company has now decided to postpone the new pricing trials. However, it may just be a temporary measure. In its statement, Time Warner Cable's statement says, " . . . we continue to believe that consumption based billing may be the best pricing plan for consumers." That likely means the company will try again to push a similar pricing plan, perhaps with a few changes, in the near future.

Earlier this week we reported on Time Warner Cable's testing efforts to create different tiers of broadband service based on download amounts with overages costs if their usage goes over their pre-set amount. As one might expect this kind of service has been slammed in the media as a way for Time Warner Cable to get more money. Now the company is striking back with word that they will introduce a new 100 GB cap tier for heavy Internet users.

That tier will cost $75 a month with a $1 per GB overage fee. The kicker is that Time Warner Cable will not charge over $75 for the overage fee. That basically makes the 100 GB tier an unlimited one, provided you can pay $150 per month. Naturally the prospect of paying $150 for unlimited use is still not making Time Warner Cable users happy, especially since other high-speed ISPs either have higher download caps for lower fees or no caps at all. We suspect this debate is not over yet.

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."

We have reported earlier this month that two major cable ISPs, Time Warner and Comcast, are testing in select markets some type of metered Internet usage. The moves have prompted consumer groups to cry foul, stating that most customers are unaware of their own Internet usage. This also could threaten the growing use of the Internet to deliver large multimedia files, including games. Now AT&T is saying that some kind of meter Internet usage is coming whether we like it or not.

According to an Associated Press story (via Google) AT&T spokesperson Michael Coe is quoted as saying, "A form of usage-based pricing for those customers who have abnormally high usage patterns is inevitable." As with other ISPs, Coe states that 5 percent of their Internet customers use nearly half of their bandwidth. He stopped short of saying when AT&T will begin their metered usage. Once again since some PC games offered via download are several gigabytes in size such a new pricing system could restrict what many are calling the PC game industry's major hope of staying afloat.

[Via Shacknews]

Starting today, Comcast subscribers with older hardware or those in high Internet traffic areas, such as the San Francisco Bay Area, might notice slow download speeds that have nothing to do with seeds or leeches. Comcast will be testing an imposed download cap of 200 gigabytes, as reported by The Consumerist. According to The Consumerist's source, "Comcast even has a system ready to go where if you exceed the limit a popup will ask you to purchase additional gigabytes."

Consumerist continued by saying that the graphical user interface for said system is in place, but Comcast "hasn't deployed it, because they're waiting for either another ISP to do it first, or to figure out how to do it without angering their customers, whichever comes first."

Despite claims to the contrary, the rather generous cap is likely another attempt by Comcast to cripple the heavy bandwidth activity that results from the usage peer-to-peer programs such as Limewire and the massively popular BitTorrent. Late last year, Comcast "was surreptitiously interfering with file transfers by posing as one party and then, essentially, hanging up the phone," according to CNET's Declan McCullagh.

Comcast isn't the only cable giant to test download rates and caps. In a recent News Blog post, CNET's Marguerite Reardon wrote that low end "users will pay $29.95 per month for service at a speed of 768 kilobits per second, with a 5GB monthly cap," with a higher price point of $54.90 per month attached to "service at 15 megabits per second, with a 40GB cap." Subscribers who exceed their allotment will be charged $1 per extra gigabyte. "The tiered pricing will work this way for the Internet portion of subscription packages that also include phone or video use," clarified Reardon.

"We think it's the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure," said Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable's executive vice president of advanced technology. "Time Warner Cable subscribers will be able to check out their data consumption on a 'gas gauge' on the company's Web page," wrote AP Technology writer Peter Svensson.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	In-Depth: GRID GRID sets up a great mood for racing from the moment you set up your profile and put in an audio name. From that point on, the game greets you by name each time you load it up and refers to you personally with race updates. It seems like a minor addition, but it provides a strong sense of engagement with the game world as you build up your racing reputation, rake in the prize money, and race go on racing tours across the USA, Europe and Japan. The PC version sports great performance and fantastic graphics, but it's worthwhile to purchase a gamepad to play this one in order to get the best experience. More after the jump.
	Big Versus: GRID This week in Big Versus we're tackling Codemasters' latest entry in the Race Driver series, GRID, which hits retail for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 today. Shying away from its more realistic racers like other TOCA racing games and the recently released Dirt, Codemasters hopes to capture some of the underground scene with their latest arcade style racing title.
	Two very different Alone in the Dark trailers emerge We have two new trailers for Eden Games and Atari's upcoming reboot of the Alone in the Dark franchise. The videos couldn't be more different. One features gameplay footage and commentary by producer Nora Paloni about the various enemies, weapons, and combat strategies in the game. It's a continuation of an earlier video that focused on fire.
	LEGO Indiana Jones now available in stores As of today, you can go out, buy LEGO Indiana Jones, and re-experience the original trilogy, thereby pushing Crystal Skull's awfulness out of your mind. According to a LucasArts press release Big Download received earlier today via email, "LEGO Indiana Jones presents a tongue-in-cheek take on the first three cinematic adventures of pop culture's most iconic archaeologist."
	Unreal Tournament III 1.3 patch details The 1.3 patch for Unreal Tournament III hasn't been released quite yet, but that didn't stop PlanetUnreal from digging for concrete details. Among the substantial list of fixes and additions are numerous bot improvements, several mod-specific collision detection issues, increased Aegia support, and cut/copy/paste functionality for the game's console.
	Fallout 3 Collector's Edition finally visualized We have reported in the past on Bethesda Softworks' plans to release a collector's edition of their highly anticipated RPG Fallout 3 but today the developer's official blog site has finally given us a visual of what that special edition of the game will actually look like. As promised the Collector's Edition will be housed in a metal Vault TEC lunch box with some great looking artwork (we would love to see the reaction if a kid took that lunch box to school).

That threat is the possible change in policies for US ISPs that currently allow for unlimited downloads from their services. According to an AP story (via Yahoo) one of the biggest ISPs, Time Warner Cable, is currently testing a new plan in Beaumont, Texas for its new customers that will limit how much bandwidth they can access for its Internet use. The plan is to charge customers an extra $1 per gigabyte after they go over a pre-selected limit.

Time Warner Cable claims that just 5 percent of its customers take up half of their bandwidth so limiting Internet use is trying to play fair to the rest of its customers. However, as the article points out, most customers are unaware of how much they do download per month. Also, the Internet is being touted by people like Valve and others as the savior of the PC game industry via game downloads, some of which are several gigabytes in size (and patches are getting larger as well). Limiting Internet use could likely curtail customers who want to download games and other large multimedia files. If Time Warner Cable feels this test is successful you can bet that other ISPs will begin their own similar programs. Will the PC game industry try to fight the ISPs on this matter? Stay tuned.