Comments on: Insight Into Time Warner Metering

By: Leatherwing

Leatherwing — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:08:04 +0000

Thanks for the correction. I knew I had to be missing something.

By: darkmoon

darkmoon — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:59:16 +0000

You’re missing the bit to byte conversion. 8 bits to a byte.

Transmission is always in “bits per second” while storage is in “bytes”.

So, it’s actually 40960Mb / 5.6 Mbps / 8 (byte conversion) = (58 514.2857 seconds / 60 sec/min ) / 60 min/hr = 16.2539682 hours.

Obviously, this is making the assumption that you hit top speed for the full time period which is a hypothetical.

By: Leatherwing

Leatherwing — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:48:10 +0000

OK, somebody check my math, please:
I checked my download speed (speedtest.net) and got 5.6 MbPS.
Total data = rate x time.
If TWC caps data at 40 GB, that is 5.6 MbPS x T for time.
Using 1 Gb = 1024Mb, then

T = 40960Mb / 5.6 MbPS = 7314.28 sec = 121.904 mins = 2.03 hours.

If you use the “marketing gigabyte” of 1000Mb, it clocks in under 2 hours – per month!!

I hope I miscalculated somewhere. And I realize that there are few times when you are actually downloading at the full rate, but for downloading a new OS or update, you’re hitting top speed for a while.

By: Jon Lowder

Jon Lowder — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Ben, this is the best thing I’ve read yet about the TWC proposal and what it means. Thanks for a very good post.

By: LUX.ET.UMBRA » More on Time Warner Cable and Metered Billing

LUX.ET.UMBRA » More on Time Warner Cable and Metered Billing — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:51:55 +0000

[...] have to admit that there’s a lot to contemplate and definitely more strategies than one can fathom when it comes to why Time Warner is really [...]

By: Meter this « Blog on the Run: Reloaded

Meter this « Blog on the Run: Reloaded — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:11:21 +0000

[...] Ben Hwang has more here on why this is such a wrong call and what TWC might actually be up to. Possibly related posts: [...]

By: darkmoon

darkmoon — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:17:02 +0000

Actually, the original post was correct. A bandwidth cap is a speed cap which is the hose. The larger the hose, the more data you can push through at capacity. There’s a serious difference between “bandwidth” caps, and “data” caps.

And in this instance, the tiered service is servicing a data cap. Bandwidth caps were put into place a long time ago (6Mbps/10Mbps/etc).

The reason I used the speed in the car, rather than miles is because in reality, you can actually put in limiters and track it with through the OBDII port. I suppose you could argue that there is actual miles tracked… so I stand corrected on that end. But in essence, the point wasn’t to throw out speed, but put it in a form where most people can understand since truthfully… if you told my parents about Mbps or data caps, they would probably just stare at you like you’re nuts.

I suppose I should have gone into some detail on infrastructure changes too as far as why Time Warner is dragging its feet with DOCSIS 3.0 modems, and how Liberty and NTT in Japan (on DOCSIS 3.0) can offer 100-160Mbp with no cap for around $40-$60USD/month.

Oh well. If I have time for another post on comparing infrastructures, I’ll get around to it.

By: Weaver

Weaver — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:51:52 +0000

Great post by the way!

By: Weaver

Weaver — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:47:02 +0000

Sorry, here I go again…(and I don’t agree with TWC caps but) with both the water and the car analogy it’s not about the speed of the service, how fast the water fills the bucket, or how fast you drive…it’s about how much you use….how many gallons or how many miles…..per month.

Yes TWC offers cheaper/slower service, but the bandwidth cap has more to do with how often you open the spiguet wide open (downloading videos for examples) and for how long.

But regardless of speed, even a 56k modem can eat up 40G pretty quickly….. in just 208 hours or 8 hours a day for 24 days….approximately.

By: Weaver

Weaver — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:35:15 +0000

I hate to be a contrarian but…

water = data

hose = bandwidth (a 3/4 inch hose will fill up a one gallon bucket with water a lot faster than a 1/2 inch hose)

paying $1/ gallon after 40 gallons = bandwidth cap

a better analogy, I think.