# Time Warner is about to fuck you the fuck up **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 3, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664 "2008-06-03T18:41:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/81 "2008-06-05T14:13:37Z")
So, maybe I missed it, but I’m sure Time Warner will be supplying people with some sort of meter so they can see if they’re about to be bumped into the “getting raped by Time Warner” bracket, right? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/82 "2008-06-05T14:15:27Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Ah, yes. Too much business. The bane of every company’s existence. [/QUOTE] It has killed quite a few companies who expanded beyond their ability to serve their customer base. Unlimited expansion isn’t a good thing; controlled expansion is. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/83 "2008-06-05T14:16:28Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] I understand your surprise…the figs don’t seem to add up. [/QUOTE] Pretty common in networking stuff. Downloads don’t just happen. You’ll get things like acknowledgements going back up stream to tell the sender that, yes, you did get this chunk of packets. Now, with your upstream saturated, your ack packets are getting dropped. So, the sender sends something you’ve already got. Oooh…can’t get your reply through on that one either? Better resend. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/84 "2008-06-05T22:23:22Z")
In more cable-related news, [L.A. to sue Time-Warner Cable over poor service](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cable5-2008jun05,0,1794603.story): > [@](#): > > In the suit, which focuses on service from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2007, city prosecutors cite brochures and television advertisements that they say gave the false impression that pricing for cable and Internet services would stay the same. > > The suit says the company failed to live up to its part of the franchise cable agreement requiring that a company answer subscribers’ calls within 30 seconds and begin repairs of service interruptions within 24 hours of notification in 90% of its calls for service. The suit claims that no more than 60% of customer service calls were answered in time. > > Service also was sub-par, the suit says, quoting a brochure saying that if a customer needed a service appointment, technicians would “fix the problem fast.” Instead, technicians failed to show up on time to appointments to fix outages, the suit says. > > Cable and Internet service “was so intermittent and inferior in quality that it was not much better than no service at all,” the suit says. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/85 "2008-06-07T09:05:12Z")
[QUOTE=dbuzman] I wasn’t even thinking about the patches but you are correct. I was thinking about the actual gameplay, data is always going back and forth to the servers. [/QUOTE] That’s fairly minor. Even FPS games only require 5-15 KB/s sent each way, and they require a whole lot more data about positioning, where you’re firing, except. MMOs probably only require a tiny tiny fraction of the average bittorrent movie transfer for example. In regards to the upload choking the download thing - it only happens at saturation and it is rather extreme. Others explained why it happens - the download waits until the other server hears back from you that you received the last series of packets - and if that acknowledgement is delayed because your upload bandwidth is saturated, then there’s a delay between each burst of download packets, slowing the whole thing down. If you can cap your upload at 90% of capacity, you shouldn’t experience significant slowdown. I’m kind of torn on this whole issue. On one hand, it economically makes sense to charge people more for using more. On the other hand, unmetered, content-neutral access to the internet is a big part of what makes it great. Others are right when they say this won’t be a rebalancing of fees charging the heavy users more and the light users left - if the light users already accept what they’re paying now, they’ll continue to be charged the same amount. So it’s a net price increase. I wouldn’t have a problem with it really in a healthy competitive environment, but the near-monopoly status that utilities enjoy restricts the freedom of the consumer. If Time Warner is the only game in town, and they screw you, what alternative do you have? If they enjoy laws and subsidies that help them corner the market in a given area, they owe something back to the general public - at least in the form of not screwing them. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/86 "2008-06-07T12:16:56Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Ah, yes. Too much business. The bane of every company’s existence. [/QUOTE] No, not every company. But companies that create turnover by charging too little go bust all the time, yes. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/87 "2008-06-07T15:46:39Z")
[QUOTE=Princhester] No, not every company. But companies that create turnover by charging too little go bust all the time, yes. [/QUOTE] “We lose a penny on every sale, but we make it up in volume.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/88 "2008-06-08T19:14:29Z")
I thought this was going to be about the cable division, specifically how HBO seems to have turned into the American Movie Channel, which sends us with disheartening frequency to the PPV channel. ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/89 "2008-06-09T03:01:08Z")
It may be worse than that. These people [http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality](http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality) claim to have testimony that many major ISPs are contemplating a cable-like price schedule where they offer a bundle of websites you can visit, and any that aren’t on the list cost extra. It’s a video about ten minutes long, 4 Euro-hipsters in a backyard. The cute one’s cleavage was a convincing argument, all by itself. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/90 "2008-06-09T03:27:45Z")
Wow. That’s pretty scary. Except for the cleavage, I mean. That’s quite comforting (and rather impressive). ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/91 "2008-06-09T03:52:38Z")
I liked that there was a random gratuitous cleavage shot at 3:25… just in case our attention was wavering. Net neutrality is a very serious and scary issue. Something like what they propose could be destroying one of the most amazing things humanity has ever done. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/92 "2008-06-09T03:57:07Z")
I don’t see how logistically that cold work. With proxy servers, independent service providers that won’t use this model, and other work-arounds, it will not work. It’s not like TV where even with the different packages, there’s still only _so many_ channels you can eventually have. The internet is practically unlimited, and people won’t stand for this. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/93 "2008-06-09T04:19:22Z")
It would depend on how draconian they wanted to be about it. Once the traffic hits their network they can do anything they want with it - read the contents to determine what the traffic is, whether it’s meant for a proxy, etc. They can route the traffic where they want and drop what traffic they want. The very technically savvy might find workarounds, but it’s within their power to practically cripple the internet. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/94 "2008-06-09T04:27:34Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] Because the usage patterns of people’s phone use doesn’t include a small subset of customers tying up a majority of the lines for 12+ hours per day. If bandwidth usage followed phone service usage then life would be very easy for ISPs. [/QUOTE] What about dialup modems? They can tie up a phoneline the whole time with local calls. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/95 "2008-06-09T10:10:54Z")
[QUOTE=The Tao’s Revenge] What about dialup modems? They can tie up a phoneline the whole time with local calls. [/QUOTE] What about teenagers? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/96 "2008-06-10T05:16:24Z")
[QUOTE=mks57] What about teenagers? 🙂 [/QUOTE] I dare you to find me one teenager who talks on their parents house phone and not their own cell. 😛 Honestly, though, _even if_ the cable companies are planning on doing this (and I doubt they really are), people will not stand for it. It seems to me it would be the equivalent of selling someone a computer, and then telling them they can only use software from certain companies. “Oh, you just bought a Windows PC? Well, you can only run programs made by Microsoft and Adobe. If you want to install that freeware image program, or that sweet new game, you’ll have to pay extra.” Hell, I’m wondering if it would even be legal to limit the internet in such a fashion. It seems it would violate some kind of anti-trust law, _especially_ if the “allowed” sites are all subsidiaries/partners with the service provider. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/97 "2008-06-10T05:53:32Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] I liked that there was a random gratuitous cleavage shot at 3:25.. just in case our attention was wavering. [/QUOTE] And here I thought [they were talking about Medicare.](http://snltranscripts.jt.org/94/94nupdate.phtml) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664/98 "2008-06-11T12:43:23Z")
[QUOTE=counsel wolf] To address some other points raised by other posters of course the companies will try make more money than they should. Ideally nobody should have a choice of only one ISP, and any cartels on pricing should be punished severely so that the market sorts it out. Bandwidth is as people have pointed out a cheap commodity, it should be charged as such. [/QUOTE] yeah, our government does an EXCELLENT job of protecting ordinary citizens from the interests of corporations like Time Warner. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-warner-is-about-to-fuck-you-the-fuck-up/451664.md?page=4)