Bandwidth caps
Despite raising prices of its Internet service within the previous year, Time Warner Cable announced in February 2009 that it would expand its bandwidth caps and coverage fees into four additional markets by the end of the year.
On April 1, 2009, the cities to have metered billing were announced, which included Beaumont, Texas; Rochester, New York; Austin, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and Greensboro, North Carolina.
These metered-based billing plans were canceled according to Time Warner Cable "due to customer misunderstanding".
Caps would range from 5 GB to 100 GB with no unlimited option. The bandwidth will include downloads and uploads. If a user goes over, they will be charged $1 per additional gigabyte. Time Warner Cable announced they would provide a meter for users to monitor their usage. The new plan was set to begin in the
summer of 2009; however, they had decided against the bandwidth caps due to protests. Currently, users have unlimited bandwidth usage given that it does not exceed the predetermined data service maximum as given in the "master agreement".[8] Time Warner Cable would have offered unlimited data for $150/month had the plan continued.[9]
Glenn Britt (1949–2014),[10][11] CEO from 2001 until December 2013, justified the new billing plans by claiming that the infrastructures had to be continuously upgraded and users would pay for how much they use. In February 2015, a Huffington Post article alleges a 97% profit margin on Time Warner Cable's Internet service.[12]
Facebook groups have been created in protest, in addition to an online petition and a site dedicated to stopping the movement.[13] Other Web sites have been recently following the Time Warner Cable cap plans that were already following broadband Internet providers metering and capping plans.[14][15]
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Eric Massa, both of whom represent portions of the Rochester, New York market that would be affected by the changes, announced their opposition to the plan and even went as far as to threaten legislation to ban such a scheme. On April 16, 2009, Time Warner Cable abandoned the plan.[16]
As a condition of the merger with TWC, Spectrum agreed not to impose any bandwidth usage caps for seven years post-merger.[17]
