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Charter tries to convince FCC that broadband customers want data caps
Charter Communications has claimed to the Federal Communications Commission that broadband users enjoy having Internet plans with data caps, in a filing arguing that Charter should be allowed to impose caps on its Spectrum Internet service starting next year.
Charter isn't currently allowed to impose data caps because of conditions the FCC placed on its 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable. The data-cap condition is scheduled to expire on May 18, 2023, but Charter in June petitioned the FCC to let the condition expire two years early, in May 2021.
With consumer-advocacy groups and Internet users opposing the petition, Charter filed a response with the FCC last week, saying that plans with data caps are "popular."
"Contrary to Stop The Cap's assertion [in an FCC filing] that consumers 'hate' data caps, the marketplace currently shows that broadband service plans incorporating data caps or other usage-based pricing mechanisms are often popular when the limits are sufficiently high to satisfy the vast majority of users," Charter told the FCC.
Or you could offer some kind of software that shows which users are hogging the network.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday August 13 2020, @12:43AM (5 children)
So what is this? Bandwidth control by naming-and-shaming?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @01:51AM (1 child)
I saw something similar while looking for apartments a while back. There was this one place that advertised the entire building was powered by rooftop solar. Pretty neat I thought, maybe I'll call to get a tour. Then I read that there are monitors in the lobby/commons area that show how much power each unit is using. I passed it up.
Maybe Charter should advertise tiny green internet plans.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Friday August 14 2020, @10:44PM
Is that really that weird? All the apartments I have ever lived in did not include electricity, so I had to pay for my electricity from the power company. Hence somewhere in a public place, usually on the side of the building somewhere was a bunch of meters showing how much electricity each apartment was using. I guess a highly visible place like the lobby is a bit strange, but could be that's where they had to put it, particularly if they were retrofitted in later.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @03:41AM (2 children)
If less that 1% use 1.2Tb/month... fuck it, that's almost nobody. What's the fucking fuss about?
(Score: 4, Touché) by jasassin on Thursday August 13 2020, @04:07AM
If less than 1% of the people use 1.2TB a month... fuck it, that's almost nobody. Why do they need data caps? What's the fucking fuss about?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 13 2020, @05:42AM
You should read the PDF's - the original petition, and the follow up. You may pick any number of claims in the petition. Two, five, ten, or all of them. Then, you might research those claims which you have picked. I'll tell you what you will find, in each case:
The claim is an outright lie. Both documents are false, from start to finish. The claim that they have invested money to build out the network - lie. That only 1% ever exceed caps - lie. That people LIKE their caps - lie. If there is a shred of truth anywhere in the work of fiction, I missed it.
Some of the lies may appear to be truthful, if you don't understand how they work. There was a claim that some % of households have access to multiple carriers of "broadband". If you are gullible, if you don't ask how those figures are arrived at, you might believe it to be true. What they don't tell you is, if one or more houses in a zipcode can access two or more carriers of "broadband", they count the whole zipcode as covered. Ten thousand households in the mail delivery area, and sixteen of those houses are located such that they can choose between two carriers. Tell me then, is the claim honest, or is it a lie?
I don't want you to just accept what I'm saying. Read the PDF's, then do some research for yourself. Please let us all know if you find any claim that is true.