Another effect of TOO big to Fail...a monopoly

Does anyone remember when AOL an Internet provider became a fortune 500 company overnight due to everyone using it. The had catchy phrases that were awesome until the 200th time you heard the computer voice tell you. "Welcome", "You Have Mail". and automatic inactivity log offs every 15 minutes. The infamous 56K dial sound logging in with Hissing and other random noises, and then someone gets on the line to make a call and your session is over. There was also a tired pricing system when you first got the demo CD, the gave you Internet session limits. Like 30 free hours for one month, and once the trial period is over your hooked. You have to have the Internet because now you have peoples email address and you cant possibly end those relationships. So AOL charges you like $30 for 20 hours or so and if you went over and you paid in credit cards they would let you go over and charge you extra usage fees much like cell phones now. Then DSL and Cable Internet came out and it wasn't necessary to go through AOL as an Internet provider, especially since it was slow or an additional fee to use it along with your DSL or Cable Internet. The AOL time Warner merger was supposed to revolutionize the industry and bring down the cost of cable and the Internet. Because both of the companies had to go before congress and the FTC and pay some lobbyist to pay some government officials and it was determined that this merger wouldn't violate any antitrust rules that were put in place to protect the citizens and ultimately the consumers. I guess it can be looked at as a win/win for both companies even though the AOL brand failed to bring in income. I thought the times where over that the industry would revert to usage limits to pad their pocket books, but Time Warner is bringing it back in a unabashed manner to screw the very customers who they said they would save money.

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Cable has released new pricing for consumption-based Internet billing the company is testing in some areas of the United States. The tiered pricing, which the company plans to roll out in other regions this year, includes unlimited service for $150 a month.

In announcing the new pricing, Landel Hobbs, chief operating officer for Time Warner Cable, said a pay-what-you-use model is the fairest option for customers while generating the revenue needed to cover the rising costs of an insatiable demand for more bandwidth....Hobbs warned that without expensive network upgrades, Internet demand in the United States would outpace capacity within a few years, possibly as soon as 2012....therefore, Time Warner Cable has chosen what it believes is the fairest approach, one that has people pay more if they use more, Hobbs said. The new pricing options included $15 per month for 1 GB of data a month at download speeds of 768 KB per second and upload speeds of 128 KB a second. People using more than their allotment would be charged $2 per gigabyte per month. About 30% of Time Warner Cable customers use less than 1 GB per month. Options for 10 GB, 20 GB, 40 GB, and 60 GB a month also will be available with overage charges of $1 per gigabyte a month. For $75 a month, a customer can get 100 GB a month at download speeds of 10 MB per second and upload speeds of 1 MB.(Informationweek.com)

SO after the congress has appropriated money for years to assist in upgrading the digital networks and using Tax Money to pay for it. Time Warner justifies that since their company fails to be as profitable their board thinks they should be that they need the citizens to pay more for less service after using their tax dollars. That is screwed up on any level you look at it, the government failed to protect the tax payer investment and from a company that violates many aintrust protections that where supposed reviewed by two separate government organizations the legislature and the FTC. For years unlimited service for cable Internet has been significantly less $150 and now Time Warner is going to charge significantly more for less service with no government review. This isn't change, its just the same thing over again. This has all the evidence of being a monopoly.

The 56K melody for your enjoyment