An Attempt at Economically Rational Pricing: Time Warner Trial

Patrick W. Gilmore patrick at ianai.net
Fri Jan 18 21:01:00 UTC 2008


On Jan 18, 2008, at 3:11 PM, Michael Holstein wrote:

> The problem is the inability of the physical media in TWC's case  
> (coax) to support multiple simultaneous users. They've held off  
> infrastructure upgrades to the point where they really can't offer  
> "unlimited" bandwidth. TWC also wants to collect on their  
> "unlimited" package, but only to the 95% of the users that don't  
> really use it, and it appears they don't see working to accommodate  
> the other 5% as cost-effective.

I seriously doubt it the coax that is the problem.

And even if that is a limitation, upgrading the last mile still will  
not allow for "unlimited" use by a typical set of users these days.   
Backhaul, peering, colocation, etc., are not free, plentiful, or  
trivial to operate.


> My guess is the market will work this out. As soon as it's  
> implemented, you'll see AT&T commercials in that town slamming cable  
> and saying how DSL is "really unlimited".

I do not doubt that.  But do you honestly expect the at&t DSL line to  
provide faster / more reliable access?

Hint: Whatever your answer, it will be right or wrong for a given time  
in the near future.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick





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