Time Warner has been experimenting with download limits for some time now. With a recent expansion of the test zone, the provider has incurred the wrath of both consumers and politicians. The provider industry defends Time Warner.
The American media company Time Warner is experimenting in Texas with subscriptions with download limits of 10 to 100 GB per month. Customers pay USD 25 to USD 75 for this, while USD 1 to USD 2 per gigabyte is charged for additional data traffic. The telecom giant has now announced that the test area will be expanded to five cities, including New York. An unlimited subscription would cost $150 a month there.
The plans have sparked anger among consumers, partly because ISPs in the US are not required to allow competitors onto their networks, as telephone companies are required to do. New York Representative Eric Massa has already announced that he will introduce a bill to ban data limits in areas where one provider controls the strings.
Time Warner defends its plans by saying that the demand for bandwidth on its network is increasing by 40 percent per year. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, an industry association, adds that the new pricing model is fairer: after all, a small number of users would place a disproportionately large load on the network. AT&T, which, like Time Warner and Comcast, now works with data caps, previously said that 5 percent of its subscribers consume half of the bandwidth. Time Warner has also indicated that plans are subject to change based on “passionate” feedback from its subscribers.