OT: Your Cable Company May Start To Charge You Per-Mega

[Guest Joshieca]

Your cable company maybe getting ready to charge you per mega-byte. I urge each of you to email your ISP and tell them that you are against this. Lets stop this before it starts!!http://www.techtv.com/news/internet/story/...3401777,00.html[br][br][div align=center][br][link:members.cox.net/fstimes/wetimage.html]Click Here For Weather Image of the Day!

[Guest Eagle92395]

Isn't this ridiculous. Like it really cost them much once the cable is up and running anyways. There is a reason AOL/Time Warner is the largest corporation in the World... and it's not because they are just a wonderfully nice company.

[Guest Joshieca]

I agree its a total way for company's to make more and more money and offer less and less service! Makes me want to get a T1 line for my building and split it with several other units and share the cost!

[Guest Scott Campbell]

Classic.AT&T will immediately lose my biz. I already have satellite, and will dump these clowns totally and go back to DSL.AT&T is losing Cable TV business around here by the dozens a day with people sick of them. They, like me, are going to satellite. So when people aren't getting Cable TV, AT&T is obviously going to try to screw us with cable modems.Not me. Not today. Not again. I hated these guys when they were TCI (John Malone, now screwing AOL/Time Warner people).And they wonder why only 10% of the Internet users have broadband as it is. It's already way too expensive (I pay $56 a month). This way they can have even fewer.

[John_Tavendale 453]

You think that's bad? Take a look at broadband in Australia. It's pathetic. The large Telco here is charing people $99 a month for DSL 512/128 and the cap is 3GB. Cable cap is also at 3GB.

[Guest Scott Campbell]

John,With all the tech Oz has that's pretty bad. But that's what happens with Telstra having a monopoly. Hopefully you guys will get some competition some day. Heaven knows WE need some in the US! :-lol

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Also consider that this may have developed from a hoax. Another example--about once a year, rumors of an email "surcharge" congressional bill circulate. During the 2000 election, several news media outlets reported this as fact, and even some senatorial hopefuls were asked their view on the bill. It was a hoax.I don't know that this is a hoax, and I don't know that it isn't. But common sense, plus my role in negotiating my company's T1 WAN contracts, leads me to believe this a hoax, or possibly a "factoid" spun out of control.-John

[John_Tavendale 453]

I sure wish we did Scott, it's pathetic. They're pulling the "Bandwith costs" crap. Then they charge us huge ammounts for a paultry 3GB a month.I'm on DSL now, 512/128, it's $99 a month, 4GB peak allowance (7am - Midnight 7 days a week) and 7GB offpeak (Midnight - 7am)

[Guest byoung]

Well if they do, someone out there that doesn't charge per MB/GB will make tons of money!Not only will my cable company loose my broadband business, but also my cable, Combined about $80 per month.Just depends who will compete for the business. And what options we will have..This will really have an impact on E-Business! And the Billions spent by cyberjocks and the surfing public...Will they charge your for Cached Web Pages too?Barry

[Guest]

I have worked as a network admin for quite sometime and I have never seen such a ludicurious move by ISP's.I think they are doing this because it was projected years ago that by this time over half the world would be on some sort of broadband service and that is not the case.It is more like 10%.I would think because broadband has not led up to expection that these cable companies are really losing alot of money.Buisness all over are still hurting from Sept 11 not to mention that most people that have broadband use it to play games and download or listen to music.However even with all this said there are going to be even MORE companies hurt by this type of move.The companies that are making new online games will be hurting from this.The ISP's that actually support this will get so much crap from there customers that it could put them under in a few years.So what are they really going to get out this.Stoping John Doe from downloading a MP3.i can't see why any ISP would spend this kind of time and money just to screw customers.This is not a cell phone service.What makes there service overload is not what people are downloading or how much.It's how they maintain there servers.I can't imagine that we would see this actually happen anytime soon but I hope that DSL does not end up doing this move.I can't see why they would though.Richard Dillon KPDKSr First Officer www.jetstarairlines.com"Bill Grabowski's"ERJ-145 panel Beta TeamMD-11 panel Beta TeamPAI beta tester ____________________________"Lets Roll" 9/11 Specs AMD 1600 XP MSI KT 266t pro2 512MB DDR 2100GF3 ti 200 64MB SBliveCh Products Yoke and Pedals(usb)Windows 2000 Serivce Pack 3

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Well, over here in Germany, we hardly have any cable Internet services, which is why DSL is the way to go. Unfortunately, Telekom still has the monopoly on DSL technology - which is you have to go via them to get your DSL equipment, though you may choose from several other ISPs for the actual access. Unfortunately, it is, for that reason, also Telekom's task to maintain and extend the DSL network, and at THAT they really s*ck. I ordered DSL for the first time in late 2000, and it took them ONLY 1 3/4 YEARS to find out that I'm living too far away from the node to be able to use standard DSL (768 kbit), since the bandwidth at my home is only 689 kbit. However, they do not seem to have the intention of upgrading the network around my home to full 768 kbit capability - in fact, they seem to have stopped their DSL expansion plans nationwide, so if you don't have it now, you won't get it anytime soon.What they did do now, however, is to offer some sort of "DSL lite", which is limited to 384 kbit by standard (even though I, for example, could have some 689 kbit at my place) and with which they now can serve a significant number of customers living just outside standard DSL limits. Well, I did now sign up for that "lite" variant, because this way I will have at least SOME sort of DSL. I just hope they will also offer their flatrate for DSL lite (they didn't decide that yet), because else it would be pretty much useless for me. They also offer satellite DSL, but this is, quite frankly, a joke, because while you pay a fixed price per month for the satellite downlink, you need a separate ISP contract for the uplink via the phone line, and there are no affordable fixed-price offerings for analogue or ISDN lines left which you might use for this.Short version is, the broadband situation really s*cks over here :-( .

[Wolfko 0]

We allready have this here in Europe. I for instance pay EUR 54 or something per month and therefore I get- no timelimit- basic fee for telefone- max download of 1 GB per monthDownloads over 1 GB per month have to be paid, depending on the amount of d/l.I think this is just fair, because it helps to hold cables free from those "unfair" guys and girls who are downloading the whole day and making the net slow and unaccessable for more disciplined users.BTW, 1 GB is a lot of downloads.RegardsWolfgang

[John_Tavendale 453]

1GB isn't much.. I did more than that per month on dialup :-hah

[Guest emergency_pants]

Surely, changing charging methods to this is economic suicide! No company in their right mind would attempt it... would they? *eeeek*If they're suffering because of the lack of broadband uptake, this wouldn't really be the way to increase sales!I can't believe any sensible businessperson would do it.Simon.

[Brian_Gladden 0]

Also you will find that most of the State regulatory agencies wouldn't let them anyway. Here in Vermont the Public Service Board regulates what power companies, the phone company and cable companies can charge. to get this kind of increase in fees they would have to jump through a bunch of hoops. any increase in fees must be approved. Heck, here in VT last year Adelphia got slammed by the board for not living up to the bandwidth promises they made. My cable got as slow as my dial up sometimes because there were too many users on the lines and they didn't expand to meet the demand... Adelphia was forced to pay a lot of refunds. and now that they are in Chapter 11 they are being watched like a hawk.. so at least in VT I don't see fee increases for bandwidth happening.Brian