Reader Elmer sends this mention of Eric Massa in a Seattle Times editorial about Time-Warner's caps. It's indicative of the wide attention this issue has received outside of the 29th district.
Meanwhile, there was a major Time-Warner outage in upstate New York today. Customers from Albany to Buffalo were without Internet and telephone for about three hours this morning. As Stop The Cap points out, Time-Warner telephone customers were without the ability to summon emergency services. Time-Warner's heavy promotion of their digital phone service doesn't mention that they don't have the same network standards as old-fashioned telephone service.
Comments
The Time-Wanker outage was a lot longer than 3 hours, at least at my home. it was closer to 12 hours.
While on the phone with TWC support, they claimed that they have 99.98% reliability. Such a reliability level only allows 1.75 hours of downtime per year. They failed that today, and this is not their first long outage this year. (And I am counting daytime outages and not those that occur in the wee hours of the morning.) By my calculations, they are about 99% percent reliable. To networking folks, the difference is enormous!
And for this they want more money for Internet, and for us to sign up with them as our phone company?
Your experience is an example of the real mess we have on our hands with TWC. They are providing a life-critical service (telephone) with a half-assed network.
In defense of Time Warner, they told us up front that we would not have phone service if the power went out or if their network went down.
What else can they do but be honest? They don't force anyone to take their phone service.
I agree that they need to be honest.
Here's what TWC says: "Digital Phone does not include back-up power and, as in the case with an electric-powered home cordless phone, should there be a power outage, Digital Phone, including the ability to access 9-1-1 services, may not be available."
If this statement isn't dishonest, it sure is weasely, because it doesn't acknowledge the fragility of TWC's network. If the power is out and I hook my cordless phone and cable modem to a generator, chances are that my Time-Warner phone will still not work, because their network goes down when the power is out. If I am a Frontier customer and attach my cordless phone to a generator, my phone will work, because their network stays up.
Also, the last time that phones went out over an area the size of Western NY was in the 80's. Maybe yesterday's outage is a "once a decade" event but it sure seems like their network isn't as robust as the phone company's.