http://boztopia.com/?p=143Beaumont Texas, cable, Chicago Tribune, Drew Clark, hotspots, incumbents, innovation, Kevin Martin, metered broadband, municipal Wi-Fi, redlining, Stanislaus Valchek, telecom, the Internet, The Wire, Time Warner Cable, Walt Mossberghttp://boztopia.com/?p=143#comments

The big news in tech circles today is that Time Warner is beginning its trial of metered broadband pricing in Beaumont, Texas. As you might expect, it’s a combination of absurdly high prices and very low caps–the lowest tier of service is 768kps, capped out at 5 gigabytes per month, at $30 (before state and local taxes, I assume). Even a cursory browsing of the Internet’s many options for video (both downloaded and streaming) could get you hitting your limit without realizing it.

It’s that kind of visionary forward thinking that has Time Warner spinning off said unprofitable cable unit in the first place. But there’s a larger issue at work–the fact that all the pricing schemes in the world are no substitute for building networks strong enough to handle the massive amounts of rich content available to users today, and that many users are being locked out of access to that content in the first place.

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