Petulant TWC says it will delay DOCSIS 3.0 rollout

[charlie]

The one guy who should know better, their veep of public affairs, let his inner Veruca Salt loose on Twitter:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/twc-without-data-caps-internet-upgrades-now-in-doubt.ars

They're slogging ahead with their tiered idiocy, BTW. The next phase is "public education." Get ready for something akin to creationist "teach the controversy" horseshit.

Meanwhile, there's something interesting going on in Wilson, NC, a little burg of about 50,000 in the middle of the state.

They once approached Time Warner about offering higher speeds for the community. TWC refused. So, last year they created a municipal service with a base triple-play package -- 10/10mbs, 81 channels, digital phone -- for $99. Their premium broadband is 20mbs and there's even an unadvertised 100mbs option.

Of course, TWC could've buried the initiative with better/cheaper offerings (the muni service was started with a mere $28 million, after all). Instead, they've gone to the state government to legislate them out of business. And they might be close to succeeding:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=14934

[Why Syzygy]

1. Evil bastids.

I hope they lose. This is exactly the sort of thing citizens need to fight tooth and nail.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Speaking of ...

I know it'll never happen in the way I would like, but I was think that a really awesome infrastructure plan that could employ hundreds of thousands, all the way from the people working in the trenches, to technicians, to manager types -- would be a nationally funded broadband system modeled after something like the Tennessee Valley Authority.

They called that communism too.

Communities are doing this. There is no reason it could not be done on a grander scale. Unlike most government projects, it could even be done less expensively than in the corporate world.

[charlie]

3. Evil, incompetent

and sowing the seeds of its own extinction. This is a company that's been reeling like an anemic drunk most of this decade, since it stupidly allowed itself to be bought by AOL and promptly lost 2/3 of its valuation. In an industry with some of the most hated companies in the country, TWC has just repositioned itself at the bottom of the pack. In the last month, it managed to make even reviled Comcast look like an upright business. It'll probably continue to bull ahead with its FU-pay-me attitude, but it'll cost dearly in the long run.