Dampier
Phillip M Dampier
join:2003-03-23
Rochester, NY
| reply to Racerbob
Re: Look out...tiered pricing and monthly caps coming !
said by Racerbob  :said by Zyzzyva100 :» www.oag.state.ny.us/online_forms···l_ag.jspSend a message to Cuomo. If enough people write in, maybe he will actually look into this. It wouldn't be the first time a NYS AG had stopped a business dead in their tracks when trying to screw the consumer. Otherwise, anybody have any ideas if switching to earthlink would help, or do you think they will just pass on the bandwidth caps. Interesting suggestion ... probably Earhlink would pass along the caps. That is my guess. I am getting more depressed just thinking about this. I honestly was shell shocked earlier this morning when I heard about this. It's my ISP after all. Frontier was outrageous enough, but at least it wasn't my account in peril at the time, but it was still worth the fight which made them postpone the whole thing.
This is worse because it just traps people with potentially NO alternative short of rationing your Internet usage. With that becoming more and more of a fundamental part of our lives, it's like a part of what we define our time with has been ripped away or threatened.
So I spent the morning feeling lousy, and now I'm just getting angry. Angry is more dangerous for them. Remember all the trouble we managed to cause Frontier. We just need more people to do the same with TW. I am meeting with some people later tonight to lay the groundwork for what stopthecap can do and I have some ideas I am going to kick around that involve action we can start taking immediately, starting with their lil 'bandwidth sampler' project starting today. I also have connections through a friend to Congressman Eric Massa who could also make some trouble.
Twitter and Facebook groups are being established to coordinate efforts. Much help will be needed though.
Just remember, we made a difference with Frontier. We can make a difference here too, if we raise enough of a stink. |
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older dog
Premium
join:2005-06-09
Norwich, NY
1 edit | reply to bop75
said by bop75 :
Dial up, 10 buck a month. This CEO is not going to cash in his stock off my back.
In many areas that face the proposed cap dial up is still in the $20 range.
Plus the $30 to $40 for Frontier phone |
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Racerbob
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
 ·FrontierNet Intern..
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to Dampier
Well Dampier...I am 100% in your corner. The internet is what we do. We don't go to movies.. for the most part we are stay at homers here. My wife likes one particular game and she usually plays that on her laptop while watching Time Warner cable TV in the evening. I can be found in my little computer room doing the usual things that I do on the net... this includes using video chat programs such as Skype and ooVoo to stay in touch with family and friends...and one particular good buddy that lives New Zealand. My 16 year old son can be found in his room doing his thing on the PS3 and sometimes on the pc racing against other folks around the country in an online NASCAR racing league.
So do we use the internet alot ? For sure. |
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Zyzzyva100
@rr.com | reply to Dampier
Dampier, I would love to help in any way that I can. Please keep updating this thread with any information about the effort. |
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Coollikethat
join:2005-09-21
USA
| reply to Racerbob
said by Racerbob :This sucks. Lord, 40 GB a month limit for $54.90 ?? While Comcast has 250 GB for what price ? Look out fello Rochesterians. This is what the lack of competition does for us. And crappy Frontier is supposed to be having their own very restrictive caps. » www.businessweek.com/technology/···analysis Comcast High Speed Internet's monthly cap of 250 GB is for all price tiers.
I'm a former TWC/RoadRunner customer. My area was changed from TWC/RoadRunner to Comcast Cable during that Adelphia deal a few years ago that switched a lot of cable systems around. |
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bop75
@rr.com | reply to older dog
Net Zero runs ads for 9.99 here. Always had a Frontier land line. I'm not paying for RR's CEO stock option pay out. |
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Racerbob
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY | reply to Coollikethat
Even though I am against caps, I could live with a 250 GB cap like you have with Comcast. Heck, I could even live with a 200 GB cap. But 40 GB for $54.90 a freaken month ? |
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Dampier
Phillip M Dampier
join:2003-03-23
Rochester, NY
| reply to Racerbob
I will definitely let everyone know the outcome of my meeting. BTW, take a look at the comments section on the Business Week article. There is a TW shill there working for the company giving us the song and dance routine and the supposed availability of the all-new "100 gig supertier." You can rest assured that will come at a super mega price, at least double what we are all paying right now.
The comments are decidedly against TW verging on customer panic, and rightly so. Even those who like the concept of consumption based pricing are rapidly learning that pricing TW is asking is akin to last summer's gas prices.
I have a phone call to make tomorrow which may let me hedge my bets against this cap crap, at least here in Rochester. I'll let everyone know the outcome of that as well. It might at least give those of us who are seriously up the creek with these caps a temporary reprieve.
What also will need to be a priority is to defeat the corporate thinking that in all of these markets where the cap is coming, the competitor also has or will have a cap, so where can people go. The answer might be the regulatory approach, both with the FCC and Congress. But we will need to focus on what exactly we need done. A lot of generic complaints don't really do anything. I will never support any cap, but there are those I can at least live with if I have to. Like Frontier's LOL 5GB cap last summer, TW's 20/40GB cap isn't one of those either.
On Facebook, you can find the StoptheCap group. A Twitter page is also established at »twitter.com/stopthecap for urgent action alerts. |
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older dog
Premium
join:2005-06-09
Norwich, NY
1 edit | reply to bop75
said by bop75 :
Net Zero runs ads for 9.99 here. Always had a Frontier land line. I'm not paying for RR's CEO stock option pay out.
Frontier has no local dial in for any of the cheaper dial up options. I would incur long distance charges.
Frontier has in its TOS that you can not use any of the unlimited long distance plans to dial in to a different area for a data service. |
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Racerbob
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
·FrontierNet Intern..
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to Racerbob
»www.13wham.com/mediacenter/local···D=205686
I am the one who e mailed this story to both WHEC TV and WHAM TV early this morning. Reporters from both channels e mailed me and wanted me to apparently get them more info or to comment on this situation. Patrice Walsh from WHAM gave a good report, but what is not mentioned is just how low the cap is going to be and that is the important part of the story along with the fact that this cap is being put in place at all. She repeats the company line that most people will not have to pay more or notice any difference. Well MOST people are using the internet a lot for streaming video, music, downloading movies, etc. |
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Baseline
join:2001-02-26
Buffalo, NY | reply to Racerbob
Haha...
Hilarious.
Where are all of those that were saying "Oh that's only going to be some flop trial in Beaumont"?
Uh huh......
What a step backward. |
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unknvoip
WWJID?
join:2006-07-25
Rochester, NY
 ·ViaTalk
| reply to Racerbob
You're not the only one. I also Emailed the stories around to several TV stations from DSLR and Business Week.
I do wish they would look at the anti-competitive aspect of the caps, though rather than they are going to give you a 'gas gauge', and 'your downloads with be bigger if you have kids'. Geez. |
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Bytezboy
join:2001-05-17
New York, NY | reply to Racerbob
Don't forget the local and national newspapers. |
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themiker
join:2005-04-11 | reply to Racerbob
Just curious if anyone has any idea if their stupid little "trial" is extending into the Syracuse area? I realize it's insanely close to Rochester, but from what I understand Rochester and Syracuse are two entirely different service areas. |
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Racerbob
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
·FrontierNet Intern..
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by themiker :Just curious if anyone has any idea if their stupid little "trial" is extending into the Syracuse area? I realize it's insanely close to Rochester, but from what I understand Rochester and Syracuse are two entirely different service areas. It won't happen in Syracuse or Buffalo. Verizon is there. |
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themiker
join:2005-04-11 | reply to Racerbob
Yeah but fios isn't. I just went to their website to see if they serviced my area and they don't.  |
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Racerbob
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY | Parts of Syracuse has FIOS from what I understand. |
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themiker
join:2005-04-11 | reply to Racerbob
Well I don't live in the city itself, I'm just in the Syracuse service area. I actually live out in the country, aka the middle of nowhere...so it doesn't really surprise me that fios isn't available here yet. |
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zoomer
join:2007-09-06
Rochester, NY
| reply to Racerbob
Mazakman: What about emailing them this thread?
The 100GB 'supertier' isn't really super. I just checked (part of) my usage and what I'm using exceeds that by a good margin. Guess turbo isn't such a good thing, huh? I can think of one thing that would explode the limit in a day: downloading my purchased games from STEAM. There are still the demos and free days they hand out like candy: 8gb for UT3, 5 gigs for something else. Then there are the MSDN isos. Uploading some photos would eat up a gig easily. I frequently run remote desktop/SSH+x-win at high resolutions for long periods as well.
That's all without taking into account the music/video/movie entertainment usage.
-------
What about starting up some sort of coop service? Buy a leased line, and share it out. Wonder how much the service costs here. I could live with a couple megabits down; so much better if it's symmetric. |
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Dampier
Phillip M Dampier
join:2003-03-23
Rochester, NY
| reply to Racerbob
Just some minor additions before crashing tonight.
First, this is the online equivalent of Pearl Harbor Day for a lot of folks up here in western NY. I've been hearing the stories all day and just caught up with, and published the videos of the news from the three major local Rochester TV stations on stopthecap. People are VERY upset locally. And it's not just because of the cost. It's the emotional impact on a community already under siege economically. There are folks who have basically dropped cable packages to the bare minimum and are huddling around a computer monitor at night to watch streamed TV. And now that option is about to be a non-starter.
Rochester is definitely leading in press attention and the angry response. San Antonio barely covered the story on their newscasts, and mostly did a rip and read job that sold the company line more than consumer impact. Austin has a big article in the paper, but not so much on local media that I can find on their websites. Greensboro is part of the NC triangle, so evidently the impact is only on a part of that TV market, so the coverage has been basic. The Fox affiliate in Greensboro was the most strident, predicting residents could find $200 cable modem bills in the near future.
Texans seem more tolerant of the usage cap, predicting in one online poll the majority wouldn't come close to using 20GB. I'd bet the poll results would be much different in western NY. Could Beaumont have provided a very false sense of security for TW in rolling these caps out further north? I'd predict yes. Beaumont and Rochester have absolutely nothing in common.
Meanwhile, we are hard at work researching alternatives. An article with preliminary info will be up tomorrow. Some of these choices are going to involve hedging your bets, predicting we are stuck with caps from both providers, but perhaps getting into a cap-free contract because of a loophole. Unfortunately, it also could commit you to a provider for 2-3 years, so if the caps fail spectacularly, you will have to deal with a second provider in your home. For very heavy users, it might be worth the risk.
BTW, the company line about how unprofitable Road Runner has become without caps is complete BS. It's only unprofitable in the areas where insufficient competition allows the company to stick a cap on their loyal customers. How convenient. No caps where Verizon lurks.
It's a naked profit grab, no doubt about it. |
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