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.
TikTok’s Fate Arrives At Supreme Court; Arguments Center On Free Speech and National Security
In one of the most important cases of the social media age, free speech and national security collide at the Supreme Court on Friday in arguments over the fate of TikTok, a wildly popular digital platform that roughly half the people in the United States use for entertainment and information.
TikTok says it plans to shut down the social media site in the U.S. by Jan. 19 unless the Supreme Court strikes down or otherwise delays the effective date of a law aimed at forcing TikTok's sale by its Chinese parent company.
Working on a tight deadline, the justices also have before them a plea from President-elect Donald Trump, who has dropped his earlier support for a ban, to give him and his new administration time to reach a "political resolution" and avoid deciding the case. It's unclear if the court will take the Republican president-elect's views — a highly unusual attempt to influence a case — into account.
TikTok and China-based ByteDance, as well as content creators and users, argue the law is a dramatic violation of the Constitution's free speech guarantee.
"Rarely if ever has the court confronted a free-speech case that matters to so many people," lawyers for the users and content creators wrote. Content creators are anxiously awaiting a decision that could upend their livelihoods and are eyeing other platforms.
The case represents another example of the court being asked to rule about a medium with which the justices have acknowledged they have little familiarity or expertise, though they often weigh in on meaty issues involving restrictions on speech.
The Biden administration, defending the law that President Joe Biden signed in April after it was approved by wide bipartisan majorities in Congress, contends that... Read More