Time Warner Cable Inc. announced yesterday that they were planning a trial to bill their High Speed Internet subscribers based on their amount of usage rather than the typical flat monthly fee. According to a Globe and Mail article, 5% of Time Warner's subscribers account for over 50% of network bandwidth usage and the pay-per-use model should only affect those users. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds; perhaps I'm over simplifying this but wouldn't the other 95% of the current subscribers expect to see their rates stay the same or decrease? I wonder how many Time Warner Cable subscribers will start jumping ship? It seems to me that whenever a company changes their revenue model it does not bode well for the consumer... their attempt at curbing the appetite of the 5% that are heavy users may come at the expense of their average subscriber. You can be sure that if they get away with this, others will be quick to follow.
