Charter Implements Internet Usage Caps

[Guest]

OMFG, I ain't going to move to a Charter occupied city. But again, TimeWarner will follow too.

 

[mdillenbeck]

When they announced their "unlimited" service, we knew the caps would be announced.

It is a response to people dumping their cable for sources like Hulu, Netflix, and network streaming websites.

Take my situation - I put up with crappy delivery of HD channels from charter because I could get basic then add HD for $8 a month. I watched only HD channels. Then they changed the policy - HD channels were lined up with expanded cable service and the HD channels were free IF you had expanded cable. Then, for the 5 channels that were HD only you had to pay the "reduced" fee of $5/month. Somehow basic -> expanded for +$25/month -$3/month HD reduction sounds like an increase to me. Don't forget your $10/month for HD tuner box also. *sigh*

My response. Screw it. My 42" tv is my computer monitor now, and I started using Hulu to watch a handful of shows I care about plus occasional movies. I was going to add netflix - but now comes the cap.

Essentially Charter (and just about every cable company) is saying that we have to pay for TV service from them whether we get it from them directly or over their internet service.

It wouldn't be so bad if they actually offered unlimited plans everywhere - but with such a limited initial market, we'll have to buy $300+/month business plans!

Oh well, I guess this is good. Its time to finally dump charter completely. If I'm not gonna have enough bandwidth to download my distros, patches, movies, shows, and maintain my web site, I might as well reduce my internet to emailing and just use cellular broadband that I carry in my pocket. Then I'll buy the movies...

...and I guess its a good thing I don't really game any more. Don't have to worry about online games, digital downloads, and Steam eating up my precious bandwidth.

 

[Guest]

Don't see what the problem is. I watch an occasional video on netflix but at the intermediate quality I doubt it comes to more than a GB per movie. They wouldn't have to throttle anyone if wasn't for all the f***ing pirates of movies/HD TV. Maybe they could have unlimited use of approved channels but caps on bittorrent (fair cap to allow download of legit isos for example). I suppose pirates will just find a way around it.

 

[enforcer22]

[citation][nom]jawshoeaw2[/nom]Don't see what the problem is. I watch an occasional video on netflix but at the intermediate quality I doubt it comes to more than a GB per movie. They wouldn't have to throttle anyone if wasn't for all the f***ing pirates of movies/HD TV. Maybe they could have unlimited use of approved channels but caps on bittorrent (fair cap to allow download of legit isos for example). I suppose pirates will just find a way around it.[/citation]

I can see you havent thought out your point at all. Good job being ignorant. If you seriously think pirates caused them to cap bandwidth your on more drugs then rockbands in the 80's.

has to do with more people using the internet and them either not having the money to upgrade thier network ( or refusal to do so ) And a huge load on thier 1990's built infastructure. Along with more and more internet delivered content and communication they have a hard time keeping up with the load so thier users who use thier net constantly compain about slow speeds THIS cap is thier awnser to not expanding thier network with thier expanding needs.

However if they did what verizon did and saw this coming they would have put the money into thier network and wouldnt be dealing with this now. Everyone said verizon was crazy for spending billions on thier network overhauling it for this new century. Personaly i think everyone else was cerazy for not doing it. now these networks will lose thier revinew while verizon sucks it up. That of course is until people stop using the internet (lol) or they shell out the cash to move beyond thier 56k network. (56k as in anchient.)

 

[Guest]

Here in Aus the bandwidth usage can be monitored from your isp's website (which doesn't count towards your cap, along with alot of other things). Its very accurate and gives you estimates on how much you can download for the rest of the month etc.

At the moment i'm paying $70 aud or $47 usd for 60gb a month on a 24gbit connection which ain't bad but wow you guys should consider you self's lucky. I can't believe your complaining about 100gb's or even 250!

 

[Dyseman]

I'm on Charter. I guess I'll have to go to DSL. I have Vonage, 3 Everquest2 accounts. XBox360 using Netflix. 3 people on Ventrilo for Game chatting. Sorry, charter, pay too much subscriptions now, not going to bow to you.

Putting CAPS on something that is becoming an everyday utility isn't right. Oh, you can only use so much water, electric, gas? don't think so.

 

[ginbong46]

I have a 60GB usage limit with a 15 cent per MB penalty for going over the limit costing me $129.95 on Telstra ISP here in Australia.

Thanks for pointing out that Australia has bad ($hit) quality ISP's.

I would take 100GB caps any day thank you very much

 

[ginbong46]

[citation][nom]ginbong46[/nom]I have a 60GB usage limit with a 15 cent per MB penalty for going over the limit costing me $129.95 on Telstra ISP here in Australia.Thanks for pointing out that Australia has bad ($hit) quality ISP's.I would take 100GB caps any day thank you very much[/citation]

Woopps let me correct that 60,000MB not 60GB. Cheap Australian ISP's lol..

 

[ginbong46]

[citation][nom]Rags[/nom]Here in Aus the bandwidth usage can be monitored from your isp's website (which doesn't count towards your cap, along with alot of other things). Its very accurate and gives you estimates on how much you can download for the rest of the month etc. At the moment i'm paying $70 aud or $47 usd for 60gb a month on a 24gbit connection which ain't bad but wow you guys should consider you self's lucky. I can't believe your complaining about 100gb's or even 250![/citation]

What ISP are you on and in what state?

 

[macer1]

if you don't like your provider then change providers. The Internet is NOT a necessity, if you don't like the rules then don't play with their toys.

 

[JonnyDough]

This has the potential to:

1. Slow piracy through the torrents.
2. Speed up the internet.
3. Piss a lot of people off.
4. Rip of consumers who's internet is being stolen (hopefully it will help catch internet thieves).

 

[Christopher1]

[citation][nom]macer1[/nom]if you don't like your provider then change providers. The Internet is NOT a necessity, if you don't like the rules then don't play with their toys.[/citation]
Guess what? It is becoming a necessity, period. It's about time that the FCC stepped in and told these companies "NO BANDWIDTH CAPS!"

 

[Guest]

i hate charter...

 

[Guest]

My ISP in Southern Illinois caps usage at 40GB/month, I found this out the hard way by having my internet turned off because I was "using too much bandwidth"

I'd gladly take 100GB a month, 40 is fairly outrageous, especially if you download tv shows off itunes (500Mb a pop) or use a game distribution platform like steam.

 

[wstcoaster07]

You think 100 is bad....My internet through CMA cable (the only one offered in my city) is limited to only 10GB a month. I wish I was joking. I have an HTPC and I cant even watch streaming online content because I will go over my limit.

 

[macer1]

[citation][nom]Christopher1[/nom]Guess what? It is becoming a necessity, period. It's about time that the FCC stepped in and told these companies "NO BANDWIDTH CAPS!"[/citation]


The internet is not a necessity, its in the same category as a cell phone.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]macer1[/nom]The internet is not a necessity, its in the same category as a cell phone.[/citation]
Last I checked, kids aren't expected to have access to a cell phone to do research for school work.

 

[matt_b]

This is the worst of times coming up for Internet customers. Right when streaming movies (HD also in fact) from Netflix, services like YouTube and Hulu, online PC gaming at an all-time high, the media-centric hubs that video gaming consoles are just now becoming with the Xbox 360, PS3, and the Wii, the boom of telecommunications protocols such as VOIP and Skype, and so on are all taking off in full stride. This day in age is not like it used to be where people think 1 gigabyte is a large amount of data. Anyone that uses a majority of these services just in moderation, will hit the cap easily. This should also in return make suppliers of these services hurt as well because customers will now start to think twice about using their Internet connection before signing that contract, membership, or downloading the program. In the end, the only one who wins is the internet company. Granted you cannot have bandwidth hogs in the top 1% of users killing a network, but ISP's need to also upgrade their services to handle the future, not kick back and place a non-future-proof cap instead of looking further ahead.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Well so much for me as a customer. Luckily forme i have options.

I feel sorry for all the users with unsecure wireless,and some kid downloading movies or games all night.

 

[Guest]

hum,

Lets see I pay Time Warner $54.95 for Road Runner Turbo (10mbit + 5mbit boost). I am in the IT field and I download ISO's from Technet, and linux distro's multiple times a month and they are capping me? If I get billed extra it is time for a lawsuit.

I can easily pull 1.2TB a year, let alone a month, and when you look at the 100mbit connections other places have, I am really getting screwed through the nose for a quasi 15mbit connection.