My thoughts on 'the cap'.
April 1, 2009. A day that will forever live in Infamy.
When the news came down last week about Time Warner's plans for Internet Capping in Rochester...I remember feeling outraged and a little ambivalent at the same time. On one hand I sit and think "Man...that sux. I'm furious..." and then I think "They won't do it...they can't do it...that's nuts right?"
Fast forwarding 9 days...I'm seeing now the truth.
It's probably gonna happen...at least for awhile.
Which has only infuriated me more.
Time Warner is made up of people who's only goal is to make money. That should surprise ABSOLUTELY noone. To hear the words monopolistic, and unfair makes sense. It is...but they've got us by the short hairs here. TWC is made up of shareholders, corporate raiders, and executives who are being hit in this time by the 'economic downturn' (and by 'hit' I mean may need to only take 10 weeks of vacation in Bora Bora). So having them look and go..."Where can we charge more for this internet service, while making sure we don't send people to the new fangled fiber providers out there". The four cities they chose have one thing in common...Fiber services have NOT been implemented there yet. Either through local ordinance or lack of ability as yet for the technology. This has the effect of limiting competition in regards to quality and speed of the internet services in the regions.
SO it IS a money grab. Any other excuse is just that...an excuse.
Fine
Get over it.
We get it.
So what do we do now?
As consumers our power is pretty limited. I hear a lot of talk of Eric Massa (our local Rochester Representative to Congress) saying he's going to 'lead the charge'...and of rallys and protests setup. Those are ALL great. However...my fear is that in this world of political maneauvering and deal-making...that Mr. Massa; who no doubt has the best of intentions...is a politician and if he's lobbied correctly or if another pet project of his comes up...he may not be able to help. As to the protests...these can ONLY be effective in numbers. Fact is...if you put a protest together and only 20 people show up...with a population of hundreds of thousands in Rochester using Roadrunner...TWC is going to think that their idea may just work after all. That we as consumers will grumble, we'll gripe...but we're lazy americans...who fear change. We'll stick with it. I fear for the most part they may be correct.
The fact is thoug...our only REAL power is the power of our wallet. As an example I wanted to share the below story from my youth.
I remember being a kid. We lived in Canandaigua...and ate out EVERY Friday night. Usually it was a rotation of McDonalds, Burger King, Polimeni's and some other diner type place. I looked forward to it every week...it really was one of those great things for a kid. However when I was about 8...McDonald's started messing up our drive thru orders. Even if you gave a cursory glance at the food...the special orders would get messed up. My mother would call and for awhile they were kind...but I imagine soon they got annoyed. Finally one Friday my Dad goes and gets my Cheeseburger Happy Meal with the Star Wars X-Wing Fighter, and my burger (which was to only have Ketchup on it) came with Onions, Mustard etc...and my toy was nowhere to be found. My mother in a fit of rage worthy of Joe Pesci's monologue in Lethal Weapon 2 screams "That's it. NO MORE. We're not going to McDonald's EVER again. We're gonna take em out of business."
My father, sister and I joke about it to this day.
For the next LITERALLY 5 years...my Mom made good on her promise. When Mickey Dee's introduced Chicken McNuggets and I heard ALL my friends talking about how great they are...NOPE...we're taking them down. No more Shamrock Shakes at St. Paddy's Day. If Grimace was coming for a special day...we were busy. Every time someone mentioned fast food...my mother would go on her diatribe. Yet like General Custer at the battle of Little Big Horn...my mother's position kept being eroded when she saw that damned sign keep ticking up when "over 6 Billion were served".
Finally in the late 80's my mother softened on McDonald's. What made Mom give up was the 'value meal' and the sheer cheapness of it. I still remember the first day we could go...from then on I would order a number 2 consistently while sharing part of a 20 piece with the family. My Mom lost the war...and like the United States with her enemies...McDonald's sued for peace with a wide selection of artery hardening culinary delights sure to have sent me on my trek to obesity.
I joke about those times with Mom (she also attempted unsuccessfully to take Wegman's and I think Bill Gray's out of business)...but I see now...my Mom actually got it.
Now I'm not saying that me leaving is going to take TWC out of business...but it is going to put my money where my mouth is. Yes...Time Warner provides better quality of service, consistency of service and an overall feature rich product.
However...they're wrong to do this. I need to be the man of my home, and make some tough choices.
The fact is...DSL service stinks. It's not as fast, is dependent on distance to the local station, and easily disrupted. However...pretty soon it's gonna be the only game in town for uncapped high speed (Clearwire is NOT ready for primetime yet, and Satellite internet is the worst). When we moved into our apartment, I had TW unhook us from Frontier's phone service to allow the extensions ot work in the house. (I have Digital Phone) and since we live in a rental...we're not allowed to put a satellite dish on our roof. However I have to do something.
So do you.
I'm seriously considering cancelling Time Warner. I'm going to see what my usage is (I have no doubt it's high...I work from home for a virtual company. I'm in PCAnywhere, Remote KVM all day. I download LEGAL ISO's from MSDN and other providers regularly, and my email files are huge and will only get bigger once we deploy Exchange)...and make a decision based from there. While my company PAYS for my internet...I can't in good conscience allow my CEO's money to be wasted in such a way. However...if I'm going to cancel internet because of the bad practices...shouldn't I cancel their phone and TV as well?
That's what I'm struggling with.
I may just do it. Pull the trigger. Become a Frontiersman. Granted...I don't want to sign a contract (which I guess you can pay for now) and I don't want to get locked in...but if it's possible I may just do it.
Really it's the only weapon we have in this fight.
At least that's how I see it...as my mother said "I'm gonna take em out of business".
Boy the apple really doesn't fall far does it?
Thanks for reading;
When the news came down last week about Time Warner's plans for Internet Capping in Rochester...I remember feeling outraged and a little ambivalent at the same time. On one hand I sit and think "Man...that sux. I'm furious..." and then I think "They won't do it...they can't do it...that's nuts right?"
Fast forwarding 9 days...I'm seeing now the truth.
It's probably gonna happen...at least for awhile.
Which has only infuriated me more.
Time Warner is made up of people who's only goal is to make money. That should surprise ABSOLUTELY noone. To hear the words monopolistic, and unfair makes sense. It is...but they've got us by the short hairs here. TWC is made up of shareholders, corporate raiders, and executives who are being hit in this time by the 'economic downturn' (and by 'hit' I mean may need to only take 10 weeks of vacation in Bora Bora). So having them look and go..."Where can we charge more for this internet service, while making sure we don't send people to the new fangled fiber providers out there". The four cities they chose have one thing in common...Fiber services have NOT been implemented there yet. Either through local ordinance or lack of ability as yet for the technology. This has the effect of limiting competition in regards to quality and speed of the internet services in the regions.
SO it IS a money grab. Any other excuse is just that...an excuse.
Fine
Get over it.
We get it.
So what do we do now?
As consumers our power is pretty limited. I hear a lot of talk of Eric Massa (our local Rochester Representative to Congress) saying he's going to 'lead the charge'...and of rallys and protests setup. Those are ALL great. However...my fear is that in this world of political maneauvering and deal-making...that Mr. Massa; who no doubt has the best of intentions...is a politician and if he's lobbied correctly or if another pet project of his comes up...he may not be able to help. As to the protests...these can ONLY be effective in numbers. Fact is...if you put a protest together and only 20 people show up...with a population of hundreds of thousands in Rochester using Roadrunner...TWC is going to think that their idea may just work after all. That we as consumers will grumble, we'll gripe...but we're lazy americans...who fear change. We'll stick with it. I fear for the most part they may be correct.
The fact is thoug...our only REAL power is the power of our wallet. As an example I wanted to share the below story from my youth.
I remember being a kid. We lived in Canandaigua...and ate out EVERY Friday night. Usually it was a rotation of McDonalds, Burger King, Polimeni's and some other diner type place. I looked forward to it every week...it really was one of those great things for a kid. However when I was about 8...McDonald's started messing up our drive thru orders. Even if you gave a cursory glance at the food...the special orders would get messed up. My mother would call and for awhile they were kind...but I imagine soon they got annoyed. Finally one Friday my Dad goes and gets my Cheeseburger Happy Meal with the Star Wars X-Wing Fighter, and my burger (which was to only have Ketchup on it) came with Onions, Mustard etc...and my toy was nowhere to be found. My mother in a fit of rage worthy of Joe Pesci's monologue in Lethal Weapon 2 screams "That's it. NO MORE. We're not going to McDonald's EVER again. We're gonna take em out of business."
My father, sister and I joke about it to this day.
For the next LITERALLY 5 years...my Mom made good on her promise. When Mickey Dee's introduced Chicken McNuggets and I heard ALL my friends talking about how great they are...NOPE...we're taking them down. No more Shamrock Shakes at St. Paddy's Day. If Grimace was coming for a special day...we were busy. Every time someone mentioned fast food...my mother would go on her diatribe. Yet like General Custer at the battle of Little Big Horn...my mother's position kept being eroded when she saw that damned sign keep ticking up when "over 6 Billion were served".
Finally in the late 80's my mother softened on McDonald's. What made Mom give up was the 'value meal' and the sheer cheapness of it. I still remember the first day we could go...from then on I would order a number 2 consistently while sharing part of a 20 piece with the family. My Mom lost the war...and like the United States with her enemies...McDonald's sued for peace with a wide selection of artery hardening culinary delights sure to have sent me on my trek to obesity.
I joke about those times with Mom (she also attempted unsuccessfully to take Wegman's and I think Bill Gray's out of business)...but I see now...my Mom actually got it.
Now I'm not saying that me leaving is going to take TWC out of business...but it is going to put my money where my mouth is. Yes...Time Warner provides better quality of service, consistency of service and an overall feature rich product.
However...they're wrong to do this. I need to be the man of my home, and make some tough choices.
The fact is...DSL service stinks. It's not as fast, is dependent on distance to the local station, and easily disrupted. However...pretty soon it's gonna be the only game in town for uncapped high speed (Clearwire is NOT ready for primetime yet, and Satellite internet is the worst). When we moved into our apartment, I had TW unhook us from Frontier's phone service to allow the extensions ot work in the house. (I have Digital Phone) and since we live in a rental...we're not allowed to put a satellite dish on our roof. However I have to do something.
So do you.
I'm seriously considering cancelling Time Warner. I'm going to see what my usage is (I have no doubt it's high...I work from home for a virtual company. I'm in PCAnywhere, Remote KVM all day. I download LEGAL ISO's from MSDN and other providers regularly, and my email files are huge and will only get bigger once we deploy Exchange)...and make a decision based from there. While my company PAYS for my internet...I can't in good conscience allow my CEO's money to be wasted in such a way. However...if I'm going to cancel internet because of the bad practices...shouldn't I cancel their phone and TV as well?
That's what I'm struggling with.
I may just do it. Pull the trigger. Become a Frontiersman. Granted...I don't want to sign a contract (which I guess you can pay for now) and I don't want to get locked in...but if it's possible I may just do it.
Really it's the only weapon we have in this fight.
At least that's how I see it...as my mother said "I'm gonna take em out of business".
Boy the apple really doesn't fall far does it?
Thanks for reading;
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