Time Warner Cable Inc. last year became the first major U.S. Internet service provider to charge customers extra if they exceeded a certain amount of data traffic every month. That trial run apparently went well, because the company said Wednesday that it will expand the test to other cities.
Many ISPs have imposed caps on how much their subscribers can download each month. Time Warner Cable broke from the pack by setting relatively low limits — for instance, 5 gigabytes for subscribers paying $30 a month — and then charging $1 for each gigabyte over that limit.
It takes thousands of e-mails and Web pages to reach a gigabyte of usage, but video and software downloads consume much more data. A DVD-quality movie is roughly 1.5 gigabytes.
Consumer advocates have criticized the caps, saying they could discourage people from using the Internet and could stifle online video as a competitor to cable TV.
Time Warner Cable spokesman Alex Dudley said his company’s trial, in Beaumont, Texas, had shown that the system is capable of metering and billing accurately. It will soon be expanded to four more markets, for now undisclosed, to give the company a better understanding of how the system works.
The intent behind charging by the gigabyte is to have subscribers who use the Internet more pay for the upgrades necessary for the company to keep up with increasing traffic, Dudley said.
“It’s clear to us that customers want online video, which requires substantial investment in the network,” Dudley said. “We’re willing to make that, and we’re trying to find an equitable way to distribute the cost of that investment.”
Dudley said a “small but vocal percentage” of users in Beaumont were unhappy with the amount of data they could use (the top tier is 40 gigabytes per month). The company plans to address that by introducing plans with larger monthly “buckets” of data, as well as cheaper ones for casual users.
Time Warner Cable is the third-largest ISP in the country, with 8.7 million subscribers. AT&T Inc., the largest ISP, late last year started experimenting with bandwidth caps of 60 to 150 gigabytes per month in Reno, Nev.
Comcast Corp, the second-largest ISP, has capped use at 250 gigabytes for everyone.
Among the top four ISPs, only Verizon Communications Inc. has no caps on its wireline broadband.
Cinematographer Pepe Avila del Pino Discusses Residente’s “313,” Winning An ASC Award
Pepe Avila del Pinoโs second career nomination for an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award earned him his first win earlier this week in Los Angeles--for outstanding achievement in music videos on the strength of the Residente-directed โ313โ featuring performances by Residente, Sรญlvia Pรฉrez Cruz and Penelope Cruz. The cinematic, stirringly beautiful โ313โ opens with Penelope Cruz narrating in Spanish, reflecting on the meaning of life and the passage of time. She is joined by ballet dancers who are said to represent time while Cruz represents life itself. The ethereal music video brings us the essence of time in our lives. Residenteโs life and time are seemingly controlled, respectively, by Cruz and the dancers from the outset. But towards the end of the video, Residente starts to orchestrate his own time and life. What canโt be denied, though, is that time is fleeting as Cruz and Residente begin to disappear before our eyes. Avila del Pino, AMC, is best known for his work in television and features. In fact, his alluded to first ASC Award nomination came in 2018 on the basis of the TV pilot for The Deuce, directed by Michelle MacLaren. Over the past seven years, Avila del Pino has lensed select music videos--all for his friend, Residente (a.k.a. Rene Perez Joglar). The Residente videos have thus become passion projects, done out of โpure loveโ with the same close-knit team. The โ313โ song and video were especially personal to Residente in that they were both inspired by a friend who had died about a year earlier. To win an ASC Award for this particular project is most gratifying for Avila del Pino--not only because of the videoโs significance to Residente, but also the deep feelings the DP has for the ASC.... Read More