Time Warner's new plan for metered billing isn't going over with consumer advocates any better than the old one.
Yesterday evening, the company said it will offer slightly more generous terms in the four new cities where it will test a pay-per-download pricing plan. Rather than
a top tier of 40 GB for $55 a month (the maximum cap for the test in Beaumont, Texas), the new top tier will be 100 GB for $75. Users will have to pay $1
extra for each additional GB, up to a maximum of $75 a month.
For consumers, these changes don't look like much of a victory. In practical terms, Time Warner will now charge
subscribers in the test markets $150 a month for unlimited bandwidth -- more than three times the current price. The four new markets are Austin and San Antonio (Texas), Greensboro, N.C. and
Rochester, N.Y.
In Rochester, where opponents to the new pricing are particularly vocal, Time Warner canceled a planned meeting with the editorial board of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
after learning that the paper planned to stream the meeting online.
Time Warner has defended the price hikes by claiming that costs are rising. In an editorial this morning, the
Democrat & Chronicle asked Time Warner for some evidence to back up its assertion that costs of bandwidth use justify the price increases.
Meanwhile, this morning advocacy
group Free Press launched a petition drive calling for a Congressional investigation into whether the company "plans to impose an unfair penalty against Internet users."
"Congress has made access to an affordable and free-flowing Internet a focus of our economic recovery. Time Warner's price-gouging 'metering' plan penalizes consumers at a time when
we need Internet access the most," states the Free Press petition.