As Verizon Goes, So Goes Metered Billing > Metered Billing Has Its Place

reply to jimbo2150

Re: Metered Billing Has Its Place

I think theres a certain trap that people are falling into, and that's your view falls into one extreme or another. This is the same polarization that is paralyzing Washington DC.
Everyone has the right to a profit. And what one person sees as greed another sees as profit. But here you have a case where a company tries to make drastic detrimental changes to service of the consumer for no reason other than more profit. Then they insult the consumer by implying they're ignorant. On top of that, they then tell you your not worth upgrading. This is consumer rape!

There is a discussion that should have happened a long time ago. A sort of stress test for broadband providers. That is what happens when broadband reaches saturation point?
How would the already oversold services hold up to the expanding web with expanding content. This is nothing new, we were having these discussions years ago. So to me, the basic argument is that are we going to let the already profitable mega carriers extort more money from the consumer because they see an even more profitable business model.
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"When I was in junior high school, the teachers voted me the student most likely to end up in the electric chair."---Sylvestor Stallone

I would have no problem paying $5 or $10 more a month considering I use more than most average users. Given how cheap bandwidth is, that $5-10 would not only easy cover my fair share of bandwidth usage but also net TW some profit towards upgrades.

I think most other people who also get a lot of benefit out of their broadband connection would be willing to pay a little bit more, like I do. But suddenly penalizing people with overages that could easily top out at $150, which is 3-4x more than we already pay is ridiculous. How ridiculous exactly? How would you feel about paying 3-4x more on your electric, gas or water bill? Or what about paying 3-4 times more for that car you just bought. What about having your mortgage or your food bill quadruple? You never see increases that dramatic on any other common service, so why should we see it on broadband?

People complain when their cable bill goes up 3-5% with a rate hike, but people eat the cost and move on. This should be no different, since I have never had a 300-400% rate hike on my cable bill before, broadband should follow the same rules.

I'm not against TW making a profit, or trying to figure out a way to pay for DOCSIS 3 upgrades, but they surely should have found a more acceptable way to do it. I personally would like to see them re-brand their Turbo tier as their unlimited/250GB super tier and keep it about the same price, while all lower tiers may have a usage-based type billing model. It would give users in non-competitive area's some choice.