Time Warner Testing Out Tiered Pricing - The End Is Nigh

The AP reports on Time Warner's plans to test what all of us Internet geeks have feared: tiered pricing for Internet access based on usage.

The test is set to run in the city of Beaumont, TX later this year, and will kill the unlimited download packages that are currently offered and replace them with tiers based on how much a user downloads. A company spokesman said this move was fueled by the fact that "a small group of super-heavy users of downloads, around 5 percent of the customer base, can account for up to 50 percent of network capacity." The tiered pricing is aimed at curtailing these users.

Great, you so screw over the other 95% of your customers just to get at those 5%? Sounds like crappy customer service logic to me. This move has the potential, like the exorbitant data rates mobile phone companies charge, to inflate Internet access fees for all of us if the pricing scheme spreads.

Add to that the explosion of downloadable video content and services on the Internet, and you have a bad prescription for pissing off your customers, Time Warner.

Time Warner Links Web Prices With Usage [Wired]