Time Warner Unveils 40 GB Bandwidth Cap

[skine]

Time for the math major to do some arithmetic:

For someone to keep a consistent connection for a month (assumed to be 30 days) at a constant rate of 1KiB/s, this would translate to

(1KiB/s)(60s/m)(60m/h)(24h/d)(30d/month) = 2,592,000KiB = (approx) 2.47GiB

every month. Running Ubuntu 8.10 and closing all open applications aside from System Monitor, I still had the receiving total dance around 1.5 to 2KiB/s. This changes to 10-20KiB/s when I have Pidgin, Swiftweasel, Songbird, Transmission and BOINC open (basically aim, internet, music, torrent [note that I'm not downloading anything when I take this measurement], remote research program).

So, in order to keep a computer on and connected to the internet consistently, I would need to have more than the basic plan, and I would probably break the 40GiB point easily with only limited downloads if I maintained my current usage.

 

[sp0ck1701]

Ditto here.

And I was trying to recall all the headlines I've read...Is it 5/10/20..40 GigaBYTES or GigaBITS?

Though my question still stands, TWC is great but what do we do to tell them how stupid the 4/10/etc/40gb cap is?

 

[truehighroller]

Faster

Download up to 20 Mbps / Upload up to 5 Mbps



Wireless router included



Included for one computer



$54.99/mo.

First month FREE with online orders


Verizon, this is the best one I could find price wise. I would probably get this one.

 

[skine]

Ah, yes, I forgot that they usually make their statements in bits and not bytes. Reminds me a little of a certain xkcd comic.

But if that's the case, then it's even worse than I thought.

 

[sp0ck1701]

yeah!!!

FYI to all.

1GBIT = 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bits.

1GB = 1GBIT/8 (8 bits in a byte, roughly forgetting overhead of protocols, etc).

So that's potentially 40GigaBITS (or in reality 40/5 = 8 GigaBYTES)

 

[cal8949]

i also live in Rochester, NY and im leaving timewarner for frontier

for people in Rochester, NY, frontier is now offing 10mbs same as road runner you can also get a t.v. and phone package on that, you have to have a 2 year contract but at least they cant put a cap on it with a contract

I've always hated dealing with timewarner anyways i hope the crash and burn


i also heard we cant count on fios to come in becuase frontier controlling all the lines right now

 

[skine]

I think you got a little turned around there.

First, 1 byte = 8 bits. Then:

GiB "Gibibyte" = 1024*1024*1024 bytes = 1024*1024*1024*8 bits

GB "Gigabyte" can either be 1024*1024*1024 bytes or 1000*1000*1000 bytes.

Gibit "Gibibit" = 1024*1024*1024 bits

Gbit "Gigabit" = 1000*1000*1000 bits, or sometimes Gibit.

-------------------------------------

So what I was getting at is, 1GiB = 8Gibits, and so 40 Gibits = 5GiB.

 

[Blessedman]

Instead of cracking down on the bandwidth their users are using why not just expand their systems (spend the money to expand then to put into a place some BS cap) to the point they could care less how much they are using. I mean they keep pumping more speed but then gets mad because we are using it...

 

[greenskye]

I just don't understand why they increase their network speeds up only to limit the amount you can download? Do they just want us to reach the cap faster? No one would notice a 40 gig cap if we were on dial-up. What do they think people do with these fast connections? Download email attachments?

 

[sp0ck1701]

cal8949 -- Wow. Lucky U! I live just east of Monro county here in 315 country. TW just ran cable down my road a couple yrs ago. And Verizon just upgraded the phone lines to handle DSL. (Hence my knowledge of satellite options). Yeah, FIOS is great. In any event I think any reasonable speed without caps would be fine for most.


skine-

I really don't mean to be rude or belabor a point, but I am quite sure of my math.

8 bits to a byte.
1024 is base 2 for 2^10, not 1000 though 1000 is a rough rounding.

So in reality 1 xBITS= 1x/8

Throw on an extra bit as a checksum, making it technically 9 bits or so. Not to mention the overhead of the encapsulating protocol.

See this and related links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit

 

[pocketdrummer]

Well, I'm not going back to Time Warner now. This is complete BS...

 

[sp0ck1701]

It's to make it more fair according to TW Roch.

BTW for any interested, here's some Roch headlines and feedback to the local newspaper.

http://search.democratandchronicle.com/sp?aff=1100&skin=100&keywords=time+warner&x=0&y=0

 

[cjl]

[citation][nom]sp0ck1701[/nom]cal8949 -- Wow. Lucky U! I live just east of Monro county here in 315 country. TW just ran cable down my road a couple yrs ago. And Verizon just upgraded the phone lines to handle DSL. (Hence my knowledge of satellite options). Yeah, FIOS is great. In any event I think any reasonable speed without caps would be fine for most.skine-I really don't mean to be rude or belabor a point, but I am quite sure of my math.8 bits to a byte.1024 is base 2 for 2^10, not 1000 though 1000 is a rough rounding.So in reality 1 xBITS= 1x/8Throw on an extra bit as a checksum, making it technically 9 bits or so. Not to mention the overhead of the encapsulating protocol.See this and related links.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit[/citation]
Your math was wrong though.

Bytes=bits/8. It's that simple. Therefore, 40GBit=5GByte.

 

[sp0ck1701]

Yeah sorry for typos. Thought we were worried about TW here, not typos. Up since 6am. We have consensus at least I hope. They are potentially talking 5 gigabytes!

 

[descendency]

Where is Barack Obama and his Net Neutrality laws???

Also, the day they implement this is the day I cancel my service and the customer rep will KNOW this is EXACTLY why I am doing it. I'll go to the library if I need the internet for something or use... DSL *hides face*.

 

[n3ard3ath]

You can thank the Canadian commuication monopole Videotron for paving the road to this kind of abuse on consumers, and still consider yourselves lucky. Here it's around 49.99$ a month for 7.5mbps down 1.5mbps up with a combined 20gig or so cap. 7.99$ overcharge for each gig over the cap. Ridiculous. For a maximum of 50$ of overcharge(Thank god). alternatives like Bell and Roger are pretty much the same.

 

[sp0ck1701]

Well anyone up for a quick laugh? I found this completely by accident while looking for postings about TW on youtube.

Perhaps this is their 6 sigma master blackbelt on the project-- lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPXILua4Ibk&NR=1

 

[surfer1337dude]

well my father works for verizon and had to install fios in new york city and all I can say is when the heck will my area get it!?!?!...this just shows verizon that they need to get this stuff going faster cause everyone would switch to them over this (execpt the people who dont use it much).....but as for me with watching shows off hulu, a ps3 and xbox + netflix...this wont last long for me...and on top of that I share it with 4 other people (Family)

 

[tayb]

Vote with your dollars. I and all of my friends who use Time Warner will be canceling our phone, internet, and television services from Time Warner in the morning and letting them know exactly why. That is a total of 9 people and I'm sure we aren't the only ones.

Just let about $15,000 (a low estimate) a year leave your wallets thanks to god awful business practices.

 

[jtsx1]

Holy crap! I didn't know there were data caps on some of the providers out there. I hope cox never does this or I may have to try DSL.

 

[pocketdrummer]

So, basically... power users suffer yet again. Gamers, users who enjoy legit online music (Rhapsody), video (iTunes, netflix), and the likes will get screwed.

Why don't they just go after specific usage? Like torrents and suspicious file sharing? I'm getting really pissed off at people breaking laws ruining everything for everyone else.

 

[afrobacon]

Anyone else find it ironic that the more advanced our technology gets the less freedom we have to use it?

 

[Nintendork]

Australia
Canada
US

Countries were internet is not important.

 

[skine]

[citation][nom]Nintendork[/nom]Australia Canada US Countries were internet is not important.[/citation]
I wouldn't say that the internet is unimportant in the US. The problem is that it is important, and all of the ISPs know it's important enough that they can charge us $50/month for a shit version of the internet and we will still pay.

 

[xxzabxx]

My huge issue with ALLL of this cap business is that it is going to do nothing but hinder us in the long run. Limiting something like that is like basicly taking a hammer to the knee cap of our future. Ok, yes I admit thats a bit overly dramatic... But the plain and simple fact is this, if we have a "Internet Budget" if you will. We basicly have to budget our GB / month cap. Which means less of alot of services we would other wise use. And pay for as well. Which translates into less add usage by consumers, less money spent online, potentialy a colapse of a large amount of E-comerce type sites. What parent is going to let there kid log on Itunes all day long or hulu, when they only have so much a month.

Now take into account that in answer to that, all newer technology being built, will have to take our internet budgets into account. Which means having to cut corners for size. Which leads to less quality product, lower quality images, less bonus features or special features... The list goes on. It's a sad truth, but internet is just as esential to most peoples day to day lives as gasoline, or water. We are a wired society, for good or for ill. Hopefully there wont be a nasty detox period if this becomes a trend.

~Zab