Time Warner's Internet Bandwidth Meter Trial

Time Warner Cable is beginning an Internet bandwidth meter trial for its new customers in Beaumont, Texas, this week. The Internet bandwidth meter trial will charge fees for excessive Internet usage and comes in response to company claims that a small percentage of its customers are consuming half of its local network capacity.

The Internet bandwidth meter test raises questions as to whether service provider networks can handle demand for faster bandwidth speeds recently rolled out by both cablecos and telcos.

Internet Bandwidth Meter – Pros and Cons

There are pros and cons to the Internet bandwidth meter. An increase in telecommuting of the work force will add to demand. If the Internet bandwidth meter succeeds then there will be more evenly distributed capacity. The Internet bandwidth meter may also backfire, however, by resulting in added fees for the increased customer base.

The Internet bandwidth meter might also adversely impact consumption of entertainment content such as movie downloads, video-sharing sites, and online gaming.

With the Internet bandwidth meter, the cable giant will set caps for customers depending on the Internet service tier they choose, as opposed to the current all-you-can-use for a set monthly price. Fees are assessed by way of the Internet bandwidth meter when the caps are exceeded.

Internet Bandwidth Meter – The Speed Factor

In their competition for video customers, many high-tier telcos such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., as well as top cablecos like Comcast Corp., have been ratcheting up the bandwidth speed.

Under these capacity demands, it’s unclear how the Internet bandwidth meter will be effective.

If the Internet bandwidth meter trial works, Time Warner Cable will expand coverage of the plan well into its territory.

Update:

In the Internet bandwidth meter trial, Time Warner is setting caps at 5, 10, 20 and 40-gigabytes of monthly Internet use, beyond which it will charge users $1 per gigabyte.

VoIP packets are not included in this Internet bandwidth meter trial.

The trial starts Thursday without a preset end date. The cableco does not have set plans to expand the trial. Business customers are excluded for the trial.

Customers involved in the Internet bandwidth meter trial can check their Internet usages by checking what Time Warner is calling a “gas gauge” on their website.

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