Basically because of the public outcry they’re “re-evaluating the testing” in favor of providing bandwidth tools so you too can measure the amount of bandwidth.  They are still “testing” just not charging anyone for it, they want you to know how much bandwidth you use so they can charge you for it and that way by the time we get to the point you’ll be used to seeing your bandwidth amount.  It’s not that they are going to stop the program, they still plan on capping bandwidth.  They just want to shift focus because of the bad PR.

(New York, NY) — Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) today announced it would alter plans to test Consumption Based Billing, shelving the trials while the customer education process continues.

Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt said, “It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing. As a result, we will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met. While we continue to believe that consumption based billing may be the best pricing plan for consumers, we want to do everything we can to inform our customers of our plans and have the benefit of their views as part of our testing process.”

Time Warner Cable also announced that it is working to make measurement tools available as quickly as possible. These tools will help customers understand how much bandwidth they consume and aid in the dialog going forward.

Britt added, “We look forward to continuing to work with Senator Schumer, our customers and all of the other interested parties as the process moves forward, to ensure that informed decisions are made about the best way to continue to provide our customers with the level of service that they expect and deserve from Time Warner Cable.”

I have measurement tools already, its called a router with DD-WRT.

Whose bright idea was this?  Time Warner has spent years pushing their current speed packages – faster internet etc. explaining that faster internet meant we could stream better larger movies and other cool things that take up LOTS of bandwidth.   So someone there came up with the bright idea “You know how we’ve got them all hooked on the higher bandwidth, which we advertised about and told them it was unlimited, lets start charging when they go over 40GB of bandwidth.”

We’ve heard the rumors lately that Time Warner Austin is going to start capping bandwidth around 40GB because they tested in Beaumont Texas and only 14% went over the usage limit.  Yeah, that’s Beaumont, you can’t say that usage of high bandwidth HD streams is exactly pervasive throughout that demographic.  Austin on the other hand is filled with technoweenies like me.  I used 95GB of bandwidth last night downloading streaming media, working, HD quality stuff (hulu, itunes, etc).  That was just for half a month.  Personally as soon as they do this, I’m not in a contract, I’m canceling internet through them and going with ATT or Grande (even if they are a bit slower than TWC Turbo).

The interesting thing to note is Time Warner is doing this only in the markets where Verizon’s FIOS service is not available (dslreports).  So with no speed competition they plan on raping the consumers.

More info from Austin 360 Blog here.

Highlights:

• No plans for rollover bandwidth from month to month. Use it or lose it.
• “86 percent of our customers at least have nothing to worry about,” Dudley said, “That’s the percentage of customers that will be left unaffected by the trial.” I asked if that’s in comparison to Beaumont and whether that’s a very different market. He replied, “Internet usage is a lot like television viewing. It doesn’t vary from geographic area to geographic area.”
• While this will affect customers in real dollars in San Antonio/Austin, this is still considered a trial in terms of whether it will continue to other TWC markets.
• The three-month grace period will begin in early summer.
• A gas-gauge-like Internet usage monitor will be on the TWC Web site. Customers will also get info on their usage in their monthly bills.
• The 100-Gigagyte “super-tier” will be “significantly more expensive” than the $55/40 GB a month tier mentioned in the BusinessWeek article. However, “We haven’t settled on a price yet,” he said.
• I’m waiting to hear back about customers under contract and how this will affect their terms.
• Dudley cited bandwidth-hogging things like HD video and BitTorrent as reasons for the change. “It’s not about trying to limit anyone from doing anything. It’s trying to provide a business model that allows them to do what they want to do for the foreseeable future,” he said.
• Final thoughts from Dudley: “We know we’re going to learn a lot in this trial. We will listen to feedback from our customers. We’ll make decisions based on what we learned.”

Yeah, telling us that Beaumont is not different from Austin is an insult to our intelligence.  So basically because I watch HD video that is provided to me over the internet I’m a bandwidth hog?  Sounds pretty insulting to me, you calling me fat too?

Update:  check out the local Austin Broadband site for updates.