Many Time Warner customers [cited] the company's plan to continue offering its own digital phone service customers unlimited service at a flat rate but count any data used on competing digital phone services such as Vonage or Skype toward data caps, which could lead to overage fees.

"It’s the same amount of bandwidth if you use their service or someone else's," said Stephen Matlin, a self-employed Greensboro Web designer who uses Skype for phone calls through his Time Warner Cable Internet service. "Why would they charge only the people who choose not to pay for their digital phone service? It's to discourage competition, to penalize you unless you subscribe with them."

Privileging its own service in this way makes this a network neutrality issue, doesn't it? More good coverage from Killian.

Comments

[liv]

Excellent point.

[Joe Killian]

A protest is now planned for Saturday outside the Greensboro TWC office, to run simultaneously with a protest in Rochester.

http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/04/15/article/time_warner_cable_protest_planned_for_saturday

[eric]

Will there be teabags at the protest? Drums?

[UNCWGM]

An especially anti-competitive reason why TWC wants these ridiculously low data caps:

From their recently filed 10-K report:

"Technological advancements, such as video on demand, new video formats and Internet streaming and downloading, have increased the number of media and entertainment choices available to consumers and intensified the challenges posed by audience fragmentation.

The increasing number of choices available to audiences could negatively impact not only consumer demand for the Company’s products and services, but also advertisers’ willingness to purchase advertising from the Company’s businesses.

If the Company does not respond appropriately to further increases in the leisure and entertainment choices available to consumers, the Company’s competitive position could deteriorate, and its financial results could suffer."

Full Document Here:

http://ir.timewarner.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=950144-09-1481