Time-Warner Cable to Trial Hard Bandwidth Caps: Leaked Memo

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

According to a leaked memo, Time-Warner Cable will be trialling a new billing system with tier-based bandwidth caps, called “Consumption Based Billing.” The trial will be rolled out in the Beaumont, TX area sometime in Q1.

“Consumption Based Billing” will only apply to new customers. An online tool will enable both existing and new subscribers to track their bandwidth usage, ” however only new subscribers will be charged incrementally for bandwidth usage above the cap.” It will be possible for a subscriber to changPublish Poste to a higher tier during a month in order to avoid overage charges.

According to the memo, this will impact only the 5% of subscribers who utilize “over half of the total network bandwidth.” If successful, the new caps will roll out to existing customers.

Following the trial, a determination will be made as to whether or not existing subscribers should be charged. Only residential subscribers will be impacted. Trial in Beaumont, TX will begin by Q1. We will be testing technical backend as well as Marketing and Messaging to customers. We will use the results of the trial to evaluate results for possible future nationwide rollouts.

While bandwidth caps are not generally advertised, it’s well-known that Comcast, for example, has what are called “mystery” caps. Exceed them, and you will get a warning, and eventually be disconnected. But Comcast has never revealed their caps.

Comcast has also used packet forgery to interfere with P2P traffic, reducing a lot of heavy bandwidth usage. And while Comcast has denied it, Canada’s Sympatico has admitted P2P throttling.

So, would it be better to know a limit, rather than have a hidden cap? It might, in fact be, assuming the caps are high enough (and since I have no idea how much I use currently, it would be hard for me to determine a fair number).

On the other hand, something like this could easily drive users to ISPs with no limits (or hidden ones).

Could this be the end of the “all you can eat” plans we’re all used to? Keep your eyes on Beaumont, TX.

Update: TWC has not responded to me, but it has confirmed the plan with Reuters.