Time Warner Cable is expanding its tests of tiered broadband data service.
Whenever we talk about tiered data plans, broadband caps, and the death of unlimited service, the standard tone to take is to look at high data users as victims.
But there is an entirely other side to the coin, which is users who don’t access a whole lot of data and are paying way more than their consumption should dictate.
In addition, if you were told that you could save money on your Internet bill if you hold back on your usage, would you?
Time Warner Cable is testing out a new idea that instead of forcing everyone to switch to a capped broadband plan, it could reward users who volunteer to opt into a low-tier plan with a reduced monthly fee.
The new plan is being tested in Texas markets, where any customer that agrees to be capped at 5 GB per month will receive $5 per month off of their service charges.
Overage rates will be billed at a rate of $1 per gigabyte, with a maximum overage fee of $25. This is the same plan that the company rolled out to smaller markets over the past few years, but now has etended into places like Austin, Dallas, and El Paso.
Because of its massive size and infrastructure, Time Warner has been one of the more backward companies when it comes to acceptance of the changing tide in cable service providers.
However, it does offer things like an iPad app for live streaming TV and remote DVR management.
